(Spirit Lake)– Spirit Lake schools are bracing for even more budget cuts.
Superintendent Tim Grieves told the school board Monday evening 310-thousand dollars needs to be trimmed from the 2004-2005 school year budget due to more cuts from the state. Grieves says they’ll cut 160-thousand dollars in expenditures, with the remaining 150-thousand coming from cash reserves.
Grieves is concerned the district won’t be able to continue to dip into its cash reserves much more to help make up for any more cuts that may be coming in the future. At that point, he says the school board may be forced to make even more severe cuts than what already has taken place–cuts that would affect programs and staffing.
Grieves offered a few words of advice for Iowa lawmakers as the legislative session gets underway in Des Moines. He called on them to “keep their promise”. Grieves says the fact they’ve renegged on financing promises the past three years has been the biggest problem for schools. Grieves says schools were promised a two percent increase in new money over three years for a total of six percent. Instead, he says they’ve received only 1.17 percent.
Grieves adds not even a two percent increase per year is adequate, as their expenses increase about four percent a year.
The Spirit Lake school board has scheduled a work session for January 26th to review a draft proposal from administrators on where they feel the cuts could be made. The board will officially act on the cuts at their February meeting.
