By 25 News
NORMAL – The Unit 5 school board has reached a decision on the potential cuts that will happen if voters don’t approve a tax referendum.
Officials say they are in a $12 million budget deficit.
It was a unanimous yes to these conditions:
- Reduce administration
- Reduce budgets by 10% (unit office, building budgets, technology, extracurriculars and co-curriculars)
- Reduce funding for field trips
- Push band/orchestra to 6th grade
- Remove funding for schedule B at junior high levels
- Remove freshman teams
- Limit students travel for out of town competitions….. and more
Then the following school year, the plan would be to close Carlock Elementary School and increase class sizes in K through 5th grade classes.
Public comment lasted more than 90 minutes on Tuesday night, followed by two hours of further discussion among the board members. Parents, grandparents, teachers and even students spoke to the board and begged voters to say ‘yes’ to this tax referendum.
“If you’ve listened to other meetings, many of us have said.. we cannot cut our way out of this budget deficit,” said Superintendent Dr. Kristen Weikle.
The decision is now back in the hands of voters in April.
