Belvidere School District considers staff reductions to cover more than $600,000 state aid decrease

Wednesday, March 24, 2010
By BILL WICHERT
The Express-Times

BELVIDERE | With plans for a minimal tax increase, town school officials are considering plugging a more than $600,000 drop in state aid by cutting special-education teachers and assistant coaching positions.

The Belvidere School District also is seeking concessions from its employee unions, including a potential reduction in salary increases for the coming school year.

"We've got to think out of the box a little bit," Superintendent Dirk Swaneveld said Tuesday. "We're looking at all programs."

The school board Monday approved a preliminary budget of roughly $12.1 million for the 2010-11 school year. It raises the school property tax rate by 3 cents per $100 of assessment, Swaneveld said Tuesday. The owner of a home assessed at $150,000 would have to pay an extra $45 in annual taxes.

A public hearing on the proposed budget is scheduled for March 31.

The town of Belvidere is also dealing with reduced state aid and planning to pass the cost on to taxpayers. Service cuts and layoffs remain possible as well to cover the $123,000 drop in aid, town council President Robert Claussen said.

"Everything is possible when it gets this bad," Claussen said. "This is by far the worst year I've ever seen."

Faced with a $606,232 aid reduction, or 19.2 percent, Belvidere School District officials are analyzing all nontenured teaching positions and programs with minimal enrollment, Swaneveld said.

Tuition rates charged to Harmony, White and Hope townships for students attending Belvidere High School also are slated to increase by about $1,000 to $12,200 for each regular education student in the 2010-11 school year, he said.

To reduce special-education costs, staff positions could be eliminated and classes could be combined, Swaneveld said. If special-education students placed out of district have progressed, the school district could bring them back to Belvidere, he said. That move would save money on transportation and tuition and help maintain positions in the district, he said.

In another proposed personnel move, three assistant coaching positions in baseball, softball and field hockey also could be eliminated, the superintendent said.

"It's a moving target," Swaneveld said of the budget. "We're working on it yet."

Also, less than a year after approving new contracts for teachers and administrators, school officials are seeking concessions from its unions, the superintendent said. One option is reducing salary increases below the 4.5 percent that union employees are slated to receive in the coming school year, Swaneveld said.

Union representatives did not return calls Tuesday seeking comment.