District 122 Board to Vote on Budget Cuts Tonight

Facing a $3.2 million budget deficit, the District 122 Board of Education will meet tonight to vote on a budget reduction plan that includes personnel cuts, transportation fee and schedule changes and countless other items.

The board meets at 6:30 p.m. at the . See the attached agenda for details on what will be discussed. At the start of the meeting, there will be time for public comments. Following that, the board will meet in closed session to discuss specific personnel decisions before coming back to the open portion of the meeting.

The remainder of budget reduction plans will be voted on during the open session later in the meeting.

Last week, the board met for more than seven hours for its biannual strategic planning meeting. Besides discussing the district's budget reduction plan, which puts about $3.3 million worth of cuts on the table, the board also got updated on future facility funding, parking lot maintenance, curriculum and enrollment.

Faced With $3.2M Budget Deficit, District 122 Examines Another Round of Cuts

With the expected $3.2 million budget deficit and decreasing state funding, the district's board and administration will have to decide where to trim over the next month. The state owes District 122 about $2.2 million in overdue funding, and administrators aren't sure when they'll see that money. Last year, the school board approved about $2.6 million in cuts. We  in part of the national EduNation series.

About $3.3M in Cuts on Table for District 122 Board

Included in the budget cuts was , and most of that is from instructional support staff. The board met in closed session to discuss the personnel specifically. There were other ideas thrown out that the board didn't seem too eager to move forward with, including a $50,000 reduction to the technology budget and $100,000 in cuts to textbook costs.

District 122 Looks to Transportation Schedules, Fees During Budget Talks

The New Lenox School District 122  for children who live within 1.5 miles of their school. The majority of transportation savings—about $372,000—would come from minimizing the number of buses and drivers needed by staggering start times. The reason for this is because of lagging state funding; the 2012 fiscal year will see a 35 percent reduction in state reimbursements for transportation costs.

Special Ed. District Could Rent Space at New Lenox Kindergarten

One deal that was received well by the board last week was renting space in Cherry Hill Kindergarten to the Lincoln-Way Area Special Education District 843. District 843 , and could pay up to $60,000 for personnel billing. That would be for certain services already offered at Cherry Hill that District 843 students would then use, such as the school nurse and secretary.

It's possible some parents in the district will speak during the public comment portion. See of the comments they've made this week on our stories:

Jen: "The mention of New Lenox's $3.2 million deficit also compels me to make a few financial comparisons between NL122 and Mokena district 159..."

Stack: "OK, here it goes. If the deficit is actually 3.2 MILLION, everyone associated with this should be FIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A number like this does not just sneak up on you!! Somebody (people) are not doing their jobs and should be GONE!!!!! Standing for this is condoning this!!!!!"

Nicole Yaz: "Consolidation of the school. 1/2 of Spencer Trail Kindergarten is empty, 1/2 of Cherry Hill is empty. Hmmm...how about REALLY looking at what is being spent and where and CUT IT, REDUCE IT."

Marie: "The first item on the table to be discussed should be correcting the superintendent's and administrators' ridiculous compensation. It is hypocritical of the board and administration to speak about keeping cuts from the students while there is no mention of cuts to administration pay."

George: "It’s unbelievable that this is what our professional highly paid school administrators can come up with to save $372,000 dollars is to put 4-6th graders out on a bus corner at 6:45am and then walk along side moving buses. I can guarantee you that given the opportunity that I could easily find places to save some big $$ to shave off the budget without jeopardizing the safety of our kids."