Education Partners - January 25, 2010

Education Partners, hello...

As always, we want to keep everyone in the loop regarding the work being done to eliminate the district's projected $16 million operating fund deficit.

Tonight, the Board of Education heard Dr. Harper's proposal to save $21 million by cutting about 222 full-time equivalent positions, cutting another $9.1 million in non-personnel related expenses, and creating about $890,000 in new revenues. Nothing was approved tonight.

The Board heard about an hour of comment from 25 or so audience members. This comment came in addition to the 434 comments that were received from our web site over the last several months.

Thank you to everyone who took time either through the Internet or at tonight's meeting to share your thoughts, concerns and suggestions. Your input is vitally important, and much appreciated.

NEXT STEPS: The Board will meet again in special session to vote on the proposed deficit elimination plan, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, January 28, 2010 in the auditorium at Plainfield High School-Central Campus. This meeting is open to the community. Please feel free to attend and comment, if you are still of a mind to do so.

Here are the materials presented tonight. They're all posted on the district web site under the District Deficit Elimination Strategy link.

• D. 202 poised to save $21 million, eliminate operating fund deficit (posted 1-25-10)
• Deficit Proposal Power Point (posted 1-25-10)
• Deficit Proposal in Detail (posted 1-25-10)

Reiterating what Dr. Harper and the Board members all said, this has been, and will continue to be an incredibly difficult process, made all the worse by the fact that we, as a local school district, have little control over the "real" problem - the bad economy and an even worse state education funding system. All we can do is try to address the issues that arise as a result, and keep providing the best educational services possible, with our community's support and assistance.

Have a good day.

Tom Hernandez
Director of Community Relations