Caledonia Argus

Budget committee to complete its task on tight schedule

Posted: 1/8/02

By Shannon McKinney
Argus News Reporter

The school districtís budget cutting committee left Thursday night, January 3 with homework assignments for cutting at least $125,000 for next yearís budget by January 31, 2002.

The committee set that date in order to meet class scheduling deadlines for the 2002-2003 school year. It is likely that more than $125,000 will have to be cut because enrollment is declining and other costs need to be figured in. The actual cutting cost will be available at the next committee meeting.

Since the committee is comprised of seven board members, the committee meetings have to be advertised and will be open to the public. A regular board meeting was called to approve the final list of committee members. The community members list includes: Harold Link, Diana Hammell, who was absent, Tom Hoscheit and Steve Christiansen. Staff includes: Ken VanDenBoom, Mitch Mullins and Dick Hatlevig. Administration includes: Brian Doty, secondary principal, Connie Hesse, elementary principal and Percy Lingen, superintendent. Board members include: Bruce Bulman, board chair, Cheryl Whitesitt, Suzanne Roesler, Charlie Wray, Barb Hurley, Chuck Schulte and David Klinski. The regular board meeting was recessed to conduct the committee meeting.

Lingen suggested setting ground rules, choosing a facilitator, setting time limits on meetings, choosing a philosophy for budget cutting, assigning homework and brainstorming.

The committee discussed whether it wanted to make decisions by consensus or majority vote. Hoscheit, Christiansen and Schulte asked for majority vote to speed up the process, while Doty and Whitesitt were of the opinion that although consensus requires total agreement and takes more time, it allows for a more educated, all inclusive decision.

The committee then agreed to take a majority vote on the type of voting. The majority vote won, 9-7.

After the vote, Whitesitt commented that majority vote is adversarial and she is saddened by the decision.

Later in the meeting, Hoscheit, and Hatlevig expressed concern about ensuring their ideas for cuts would be acted on by the board because it was noted that the committee could vote on the recommendations but the board would have the final say at a regular board meeting. Doty noted a board vote may yield different results than a committee vote. He felt in order for this committee to be successful, committee members must walk away feeling happy with the decisions. It was pointed out by Schulte that with 17 committee members it will be hard to please everyone.

Three individuals were nominated as facilitators: Christiansen, Schulte and Roesler. VanDenBoom asked each if they desired to be facilitator. Roesler was the only one to express interest in facilitating.

Dates were set for one meeting each week for the next three weeks. Unless otherwise noted the meetings are scheduled in the library from 7-9 p.m.

The meeting dates are as follows: Thursday, January 10, Tuesday, January 15, Wednesday, January 23 and Monday, January 28. The last meeting is scheduled for Monday to allow for another meeting if one is necessary.

The committee agreed on a board philosophy, ìWe will look at everything in the best interest of all students.î

The committee spent 10 to 12 minutes brainstorming ways to cut the budget. Over 30 ideas were presented, which were then broken down into categories.

Committee members then volunteered for a category to research those options to bring back ideas for the next meeting. Those subcommittees include Hurley and VanDenBoom on transportation and facilities topics, Doty and Link on revenue enhancement, Whitesitt, Klinski, Roesler and Hatlevig on staffing, Christiansen, Wray, Hesse, Bulman and Hammell on curriculum, Mullins and Hoscheit on extra and co-curriculars and Schulte, Lingen and Anderson on the business office category.

Each committee member will receive a 55 page report on the amount of money spent on each department including supplies, salaries ect. They will receive other common interest materials to aid in the budget cutting process.

The committee recommended working on fact based decisions versus opinion based decisions.

The districtís projected deficit by June 30, 2002 is about $580,000.

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