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Schools

Springs Schools Give Community a Crack at Cuts

Workshop asked locals to collaborate to look at which programs would stay, and which might be dropped to stay in line with tax cap.

administration on Saturday took the task of prioritizing school programs to the community, a move that sets the stage for possible cuts in the first budget season since the newly enacted state tax cap.

The first community workshop of its kind, “A Community Conversation,” saw more than 100 participants break up into 8 groups to discuss which programs should stay and which should be cut.

Springs School Board Member Liz Mendelman said the idea came from an educator’s workshop they had attended this year.

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The budget season always raises issues within Springs School District but this year the district is faced with a new issue since the state passed a tax cap levy of 2 percent for property taxes. That translates to an estimated tax cap of 3.31 percent for the Springs district when factoring in property value, according to Superintendent Michael Hartner.

Hartner said that with this law, Springs School can propose a budget that is up to 3.31 percent higher than last year’s budget. If they would like to propose a budget higher than 3.31 percent a supermajority, which is over 60 percent of voters, would be needed to pass it.

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The district said a budget increase of 3.31 percent would still have a $1,090,000 budget gap. Although the budget would be higher than 2011-2012, many fixed costs have risen including health insurance and teachers salaries, according to Hartner.

Out of the 25 programs that were discussed, most chose to get rid of the half-day of universal pre-kindergarten. Parents would have the option to enroll their students in private pre-kindergarten.

A majority of groups also said they'd favor having buses only pick up students who live at least 2 miles away. Currently, students are being picked up if they live at least 1 mile away from the school.

But the idea of cutting those programs wasn't popular with everyone. Springs teaching assistant and parent Eileen Goldman said, “I believe every penny you pay in preschool you get back ten-fold.”

Most groups also felt strongly about keeping kindergarten at a full day. The majority also voted against class sizes being over 25 students.

Other programs that made the list of possible cuts included: elementary science, elementary Spanish, teaching assistants in grade 1 and kindergarten, intramural sports, educational field trips, physical education, Grade 4 Opera, Science Olympiad and others.

Most groups who reported their findings agreed on budgets that would need a supermajority to pass.

The board and administration plans to put the results of the workshop on its website for the public to see.

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