The school board unanimously approved a list of reductions to the 2010-2011 budget at Tuesday night’s meeting. The list included a slight deviation from what had previously been presented as school board members and the community took umbrage with eliminating days from the school calendar. In response to input, Assistant Superintendent of Business Justin Frese came armed with a list of alternatives that would take the place of the proposed elimination of the two days.
On the approved list of cuts, eliminating one school day still remains for a savings of $116,745, pending concurrence from the Valley of the Moon Teachers Association. Taking the place of eliminating the second school day are changes to the Sonoma Valley Adult School (SVAS) and Creekside. Frese and Adult School Principal Pam Garramone spent hours working on a plan to combine the schools, creating new efficiencies and freeing $65,000 toward budget reductions. Moving forward, Creekside will be run by Garramone while current principal Paul Touhy will return to the high school to continue his duties as vice principal there full time.
“Have of the money we’re saving is in administrative salaries and the rest is due to small tweaks in the program with little reductions in service,” said Frese.
The remainder of the cuts include: a two percent raise for teachers for $380,000; a 25 percent from SVAS for $85,512; maintenance and operations cuts for $100,000; modifying the Teen Parent Program for $20,000; eliminating the custodial supervisor for $45,000; district office reductions for $20,000; a 30 percent cut to summer school for $97,500; reducing the transportation budget by $100,000.
