NEW LONDON -- The New London-Spicer School Board approved a resolution Monday night directing the district's administration to recommend a minimum of $150,000 in budget cuts for the 2007-08 school year.
The staffing and program cuts will be recommended to the board's finance committee, which will in turn recommend them to the school board, according to superintendent Paul Carlson.
The district has annual projected cuts of around $200,000 per year for several years, based on declining enrollment. Last year, the cuts were limited to approximately $145,000.
The board also heard a unanimous recommendation from the kindergarten task force to create an all-day, everyday kindergarten program at NLS.
Currently, kindergarten students attend 2.5 days per week. A community education program, called Kinder Pals, hosts students on the school days when they are not in their kindergarten class.
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Having an all-day program will allow students to reach higher academic achievement, more adequately prepare students for first grade and decrease costs due to tutoring and repeating a grade, according to task force member Dave Kilpatrick.
The cost of staffing and funding the full-time kindergarten program would be approximately $263,000, which is about $90,000 more than the current cost of $173,000. The task force recommended that the school district use an increase of $123,000 in compensatory education revenue to fund the increased cost.
"I can't think of a better way to invest our money than at the front door of our education system," Kilpatrick told the board.
The additional funding is coming from monies districts receive based on the number of students in the free and reduced lunch programs.
The task force also recommended that a parent choice option be included if the district offers an all-day, everyday kindergarten program. The option would allow students to attend classes three days per week if their parents feel they are not ready for a five-day program.
In other action:
- The board approved a revised 2006-2007 budget in which the projected fund balance for the general fund is expected to be $103,282 on June 30. The changes to the budget, with $358,317 less revenue than expenditures, comes mostly from two factors, business manager Barb Gjerde explained to the board. The factors are how the state bills and pays for special education funding and the Prairie Woods Elementary roofing project. The district has paid for the $750,000 roof out of existing funds.
The general fund balance is the lowest in 10 years, Gjerde explained. Over time, the district will need to build the funds back up to acceptable levels of between 5 to 10 percent of its budget.
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Based on the district's $13 million annual budget, the reserve should be between $600,000 to $1,200,000, she said.
- The board approved the 2007-2008 school calendar, with the last day of school for students set for June 4 and high school graduation on June 8, 2008.
