The Galesburg School District will have to cut $2 million from its budget, just days before the new school year is about to begin.
In Monday’s School Board meeting, the School Board confirmed the district is operating under a $2.6 million deficit, a budget the district Superintendent said they can't keep up.
“We have about $11.9 million in reserve dollars that we can spend to operate the district,” said Ralph Grimm, Galesburg School District’s Superintendent. “So if we're deficit spending at $2.5 million a year, we've got about 4 years before we’re in critical condition.”
The school board wants the district to cut $2 million out of their spending budget to cut down on the deficit. To help decide where those cuts will be made, they are putting together a budget reduction committee.
The announcement comes about one year after the Galesburg teacher strike that forced the school to start 10-days late. The Superintendent said while they will try to avoid cutting teacher jobs, salaries and pensions make up about 76 percent of their general budget.
“The cuts will be shared across the board. Everything is on the table and everything will be looked at,” said Grimm. “It's unfortunate because when we start to eliminate people we're impacting kids.”
Galesburg isn't the only district in the state facing budget cuts. The superintendent said 80 percent of Illinois school districts will be operating under a deficit this year.
“Part of our problem is the state of Illinois has prorated state aid for the last 4 years,” said Grimm. “The proration amount that we are expecting this year, the money that we should receive but we won't receive, is about $2.4 million.”
“I have met with the superintendent on several occasions and I know our priority is to try to do everything we possibly can before that happens,” said Dave Sharp, President of the Galesburg Education Association. “We're going to try to prioritize everything and kind of take a look at, what is it that we could possibly do without and still try to maintain the best education possible for students, which is the goal.”
The budget reduction committee will be made up of a combination of school board members, administrative staff, the Galesburg Education Association, and possibly community members.