Kaneland cutting $3M from budget, mulling contract talks
By JONATHAN BILYK Shaw Suburban Media
MAPLE PARK – In order to make ends meet, the Kaneland School District will need to identify about $3 million in cuts to next year’s budget.
And district officials say that the process of achieving that goal – which could include reopening contract talks with the teachers union – could prove to be both painful and “ugly.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think this can be achieved without significantly impacting students, teachers and everyone else in the Kaneland community,” said Kaneland Superintendent Charles McCormick.
For months, administrators and others at the Kaneland Community Unit School District 302 have warned that economic circumstances would likely lead to strict cost control measures at the district, as the district has experienced no new tax growth.
Earlier this year, the district moved to trim about $750,000 from its budget, cutting eight teaching positions and 11 teachers aide positions to help balance the 2009-2010 budget.
But as the economy has remained stagnant, district officials have said much more drastic action must be taken in advance of the 2010-2011 school year to cut $3 million in spending and balance next year’s budget
To help the district meet its goal, district officials have divided the district’s staff into nine teams designed to cut costs in the district’s main areas of operation, including its funds for classroom instruction, transportation, technology, maintenance, administration, support services and food service.
McCormick said those teams will meet this month and in December, assemble a list of preliminary recommendations. Those recommendations will then be taken to the Kaneland District 302 Board of Education in January.
By law, the board must make personnel decisions for the next school year by March.
McCormick said nothing is off limits in this discussion, including administrative and teachers salaries.
He said the district could move to reopen contract talks with teachers, potentially seeking to alter the contract ratified by the district and the Kaneland Education Association in November 2008.
That contract included 16 percent raises for teachers over the following three years.
“We will be at some point pursuing that (reopening contract talks),” McCormick said.
Assistant Superintendent Jeff Schuler noted in a memorandum to district staff that increase in salaries in staff for next year alone will amount to about $1.5 million.
Kaneland Education Association President Linda Zulkowski did not return messages left Tuesday.
McCormick said the district will not attempt to tax itself out of its predicament, saying any attempt to pass a referendum in the current climate would be “futile.”
Regardless of what action is ultimately taken, McCormick and Schuler said the decisions will be painful and felt across the district’s schools.
“Frankly, the magnitude of necessary reductions and the impacts they will entail will be significant and ugly,” Schuler wrote.
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