Urbana School Board Close to Finalizing $2 Million in Budget Cuts

The Urbana School Board is close to approving $2 million in budget cuts, to cope with the state revenue crisis.

District 116 board members held a special meeting Wednesday night to continue work on the budget cuts. As it stands, the district will lay off teachers at the elementary, middle and high school levels, along with two school nurses, and the district's public relations director. Building and athletic budgets will be cut by ten percent, and comp time will replace overtime pay district-wide.

School Board president John Dimit says they tried to avoid cut that eliminated whole programs. But he says the budget reductions go beyond just trimming the fat.

"We've been into the bone all along", says Dimit. "Any time you're cutting six elementary teachers, six middle school teachers, six high school teachers --- we're cutting in. We're eliminating options for our students. We're increasing class sizes."

But Dimit says the two million in cuts may not be enough, if the 1-point-3 billion dollars cuts in state education funding proposed by Governor Pat Quinn comes to pass.

"The depth of cut that the governor proposed today (Wednesday) is deeper than the base assumptions that we had established when we created out $2 million goal", Dimit says. "If that cut comes to pass, our goal would have been substantially higher than two million."

Governor Quinn says a state income tax increase could prevent the cuts in school funding. But if the statewide cuts take place, Dimit says the Urbana school board might have to resort to deficit spending next year to get by --- or else look for additional spending cuts that don't involve personnel.

The Urbana School Board will fine-tune its proposed budget cuts at a special meeting Sunday night before taking a final vote. Dimit says board members want to see if they modify some reductions so that they have less impact on school programs.