(Spirit Lake)– Some difficult decisions lie ahead for the Spirit Lake School Board.
Faced with a significant reduction in state aid, the district has to cut some 200-thousand dollars in spending for the current school year. Superintendent Tim Grieves told the School Board Monday night he implemented about 123-thousand dollars in cuts October 25th. The cuts include elimination of a Techonology Systems Administrator Assistant; budgets for the elementary, middle and high schools were each cut by ten percent; transportation, district administration and maintenance budgets were also hacked by ten percent.
That still leaves a considerable amount of cuts to be made. Among the items that could be on the chopping block are the school district’s dial-up internet service known as “Spiritnet”; reducing the number of coaches; reduce summer programming or charge tuition; reduce music support; cut the number of teacher aides or reduce their hours; charge more for the use of facilities; cut administration and teaching jobs; elminate in-town busing, charge more for the I-C-N room; reduce substitute teachers; increase book rental fees; and reducing paper use…among other things.
Again, those are still being eyed for possible cuts. Superintendent Tim Grieves emphasized last night that the actual cuts made so far do not involve faculty.
