With the Indiana Area School District facing a budget deficit of $1,151,962, the board approved various budget allocation reductions in areas such as Instructional Equipment, Curriculum/Instructional Technology, and Operation and Maintenance. The board also chose not to fill two faculty vacancies at Monday night’s meeting.
School field trip allocations and transportation for the 8th grade Washington D.C. field trip were spared from the list, for a total of $228,500 in reductions. The list of allocation reductions is as follows:
- Instructional equipment – $50,000
- Curriculum/Instructional Technology – $40,000
- School overall allocation reduction – $28,000
- Athletic supplies and equipment – $5,000
- Athletic advertising – $1,500
- Operation and Maintenance – $57,000
- Technology budget – $25,000
- Business office – $8,000
- Superintendent’s Office – $5,100
- Board Services – $8,900
- Total – $228,500
A final budget will be passed at the meeting on June 25th.
Later, separate motions to fill a secondary English/Language Arts position and a Health/Physical Education position each failed to pass 2 votes to 6.
Sr. High English/Drama teacher Leah Lyons spoke to the impact the decision has on teachers and students:
“What’s going to happen when the number of students that each of us have increases? Will we be able to maintain what we need to maintain for our students? We are here for the students, and I’m just very concerned, very concerned, of how we’re going to do that.”
Jr. High Phys Ed instructor Pete Woytowish expressed similar concern about the P.E. position:
“We keep being asked to do the same amount with less every year, and we’re resorting to having students in the P.E. program take online classes, which, you know… it’s very frustrating. It makes me feel like I’m not valued, it makes our department look like it doesn’t matter.”
In other news, Gregory Lezanic was reappointed as Athletic Director for the 2018-19 year, at a salary of $20,000.
Additionally, the board approved a contract with Architectural Innovations as the district’s Architect of Record.
A list of hires for extracurricular activities and a motion to accept the ICTC budget were tabled.
