D. 31 Superintendent: $1 Million In Cuts on the Table

If voters don’t pass a property tax increase in March, administrators from West Northfield School District 31 say several support staff members, all sports and the school district’s band program could be on the chopping block. 

At a board meeting Thursday night, Superintendent Alexandra Nicholson read a list of cuts totaling $1 million that she said would have to be made over the next two years if the $1.8 million referendum fails.

“This district is not running on any fat,” Nicholson told a group of two dozen parents, teachers and community members who attended the meeting at . “We are running on skin, bones and muscle.” 

The March 20. After , District 31 .  Even so, the district’s 2012-13 budget falls short, given mounting costs as more students qualify for state-mandated English language classes, $1.35 million in necessary “life safety” repairs for its aging buildings, and , according to Nicholson. 

Support staff on the district’s list of potential cuts include a part-time P.E. teacher at , a fine arts teacher at either school, a Korean social worker, a Spanish bilingual program assistant and a speech and language pathologist. In some cases, where positions were eliminated, Nicholson said staff would not be laid off but moved around to cover other vacancies.

Also on the list of cuts was all school funding for extracurricular programs and a subsidy the district is currently providing for parents who send their kids to school on the bus. Last year, the district began asking parents to chip in $400 for one student to pay for bus transportation. If the referendum does not pass, parents could be asked to fork over $750 to $800 for one student, Nicholson said.

Parents are currently being asked to help pay for several extracurricular and sports programs; . With further reductions, however, that burden could fall even more heavily on parents. 

To draft the list of potential cuts, District 31 surveyed parents on what three things they would cut and what three things they would keep. Nicholson also formed a 22-person committee including parents, teachers and community members to gather further input before making a recommendation to the board of education.

“It was a long process to make this determination,” Nicholson said. “We wanted input from as many people as we could get.”

The district is not proposing any reductions to core teaching personnel, based on the unanimous recommendation of the committee and parents whom the district surveyed, Nicholson said. Last year, however, the district did not replace three teachers and an assistant principal who retired.   

Speaking as a parent, board member Robert Spector said he believed that further cuts would be devastating to the district. 

“When I look at the emotional, social, physical development, we are crippling our ability to provide that for our children in this district,” he said. “There’s never a good time for a tax increase, but that’s really what these cuts boil down to.”

Also speaking as a parent, board member Shel Leshner reminded the audience that the district’s tax rate is one of the lowest in Illinois, and is the lowest among its surrounding districts.

“Do I want to raise my taxes? Yes, because it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “We here on the board are trying to make the most of every penny.”

After the meeting, leaders of the pro-referendum group, Citizens for District 31, said they would do everything they could to spread the word about the district’s financial woes. 

“If this referendum fails, it’s going to severely impact this community,” said parent and pro-referendum group member Phil Hollenberg. “What they’re asking for is critical.”

Teachers who attended the meeting said that the mood in district 31 was bleak.  

“People are feeling a little concerned about the future of the district and how we’ll be able to provide services,” said Julie O’Conner, a math teacher at Field.

O’Connor said she moved to district 31 five years ago when she got the teaching job there, because she was so impressed with the school district and wanted her daughter to attend its schools. 

Now, she said, she has already seen the impact of cuts. Her classes have grown from 19-20 students in previous years to 24-26 in some classes this year. Given the fact that the school district cut its early and late buses, she added, fewer students were able to come early or stay late to get extra help. 

And the teachers are worried about their jobs.

“I have heard teachers say it would be a good time for younger teachers to start looking around,” she said. “People are nervous.”

If the referendum does not pass, the district must decide which cuts to make at its April board meeting, according to Nicholson. She said the district would like to spread the cuts out over two years in hopes that they can get creative with saving money.

“If we can save an extra teacher or two, we certainly will,” said Handler.