(Spirit Lake)– Meeting in special session Monday evening, the Spirit Lake school board voted unanimously to proceed with a proposal by Superintendent David Smith to cut slightly more than 362-thousand dollars from the budget. That’s down from 400-thousand originally proposed.
Smith says several factors have led to the latest round, including a decline in enrollment, decreased state aid, and a need to bolster the district’s cash reserves, which he says have dropped dangerously low.
Among the latest round of cuts: a half-time custodian; two full-time custodians; two full-time sixth-12th grade general education associates; one full-time secretary; one part-time secretary; a half-time high school English teacher; a part-time Elementary creativity person; one full-time administrator; a half-time art position; a third of a position in the Music Department; reducing Elementary Summer School from three weeks to two; and reducing the activities budget by eight thousand dollars.
While this round of cuts doesn’t do away with any programs, Smith warns additional cuts are more than likely coming next year. He says “we’ve cut to bare bone and at some point you can’t provide the same programming for students with the same amount of money or with less money. So additional cuts in the future, you have to look at programs”. Smith added, “let’s hope we don’t get there”.
Smith says the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy had nothing to do with cuts, as that money cannot be used for personnel.
Smith adds the $362,000 in cuts was also based on a tentative agreement with the Spirit Lake Education Association. He says if the agreement isn’t ratified and goes to binding arbitration, the amount of cuts could grow to nearly a half million dollars.
