CRAFT

We at CRAFT believe the school board has not fully looked at possible cuts in District 50's budget prior to going to the public and asking for a referendum. The fact is all education referenda put to the public since 1990 have failed. This referendum has failed and the school board must act in a fiscally responsible way and balance the budget as required by the Illinois Compiled Statues for Schools. We believe cuts can be made without cutting teachers and without cutting programs. Below is a list of possible cuts however this is not an exhaustive list.

1. Restructure the administrative organization to eliminate assistant superintendent and assistant principal positions at the end of their current contracts, which is this year.

2. Institute a shared principal between two of the elementary schools.

3. Examine the necessity of current administrative support staffing levels.

4. Re-evaluate the administration retirement packages, including the elimination of end of career pay increases prior to retirement.

5. Require all administrative employees and teachers to contribute fifty percent of all benefit premiums.

6. Install a pay freeze for all District 50 employees at contract renewal time until the budget is balanced.

7. Implement a ten percent pay cut for all remaining administrative positions at time of contract renewal. No administrative position is to be paid in excess of $85,000 in gross annual salary through 2006 for all existing as well as new positions.

8. Implement a ten percent pay decrease for all District 50 staff.

9. Reduce the number of sick days per year in the next contract from 14 to 5.

10. Reduce the number of sick days to be carried over per year to 5 and put a cap on the number of sick days that can be banked in the next teachers contract. The cap should be set at 15.

11. Increase the retirement age to 65.

12. Eliminate the end of career stipend of 11,000.00 dollars for retiring teachers in the next contract.

13. Institute pay freezes for all District 50 employees in deficit years.

14. Decrease overtime pay from 24 dollars an hour to 20 dollars an hour with the next teachers contract.

15. Increase the deductible for staff health insurance from $250.00 to $500.00 for individuals.

16. Encourage the Union to work together to save teacher jobs have them re-negotiate their contract.

17. Seek out donations from yes voters.

18. If you make sure that your children start out with a good foundation in reading and math, you'll save a fortune in remediation later. Make sure that solid, DISEC phonics-based reading instruction (such as Open Court) is used in all elementary classrooms, with careful DIBELS assessment along the way. Adopt proven practice-to-mastery math programs that provide plenty of practice and maintenance (such as Saxon Math or Singapore Math). Make sure that language classes include a healthy dollop of non-fiction, and that social studies classes use content-rich materials in all grades.

19. Avoid the temptation to make excessive reductions in class size. The main side effect is that more classrooms are required. There is scant evidence that reducing class size improves education in any way. Worse, a smaller class size tempts many teachers into spending more time in low-content projects that contribute little to learning.

20. Freeze spending on state of the art computers and other curb-appeal "technology" that has little positive effect on education and may actually harm learning. (See: http://www.illinoisloop.org/computers.html)

21. Reduce or eliminate the use of expensive outside "experts" dispensing dubious advice at teacher in-services.

22.Privatize services such as janitorial, food, transportation

23.Welcome charter proposals: Charter public schools typically cost less per child than conventional district schools. Embrace them, as the city of Chicago has done. To make them viable, encourage neighboring districts to welcome multi-district charters.

24.If enrollment is increasing so much that a new school is being considered, then definitely welcome charters. You say that someone else wants to take over the headaches of finding or building a school, and then they're going to spend less that you are now per child, and many parents are going to be thrilled with having this new option? Well, DUH, go for it!

25. Share facilities across districts. Does EVERYBODY have to have a new school? A new junior high? A new football field?

26. Share facilities with other governmental units, such as the village or town, library, park. (See: http://www.free-market.net/rd/480601695.html)

27. Consider year-round scheduling, in which each three months in school is followed by a month vacation. This permits a massive increase in classroom utilization, for a huge savings. (Plus, it permits family vacations at all kinds of interesting times of the year besides summer, and it also prevents the kind of slippage in education that is commonplace after three consecutive months off.) It works great in many places where it has been tried, with parents, teachers and kids all loving it. Admittedly, it would seem to be best suited to warm-weather climates, where that month off in November or February is still greatly enjoyable. Also, it would require air conditioning for classes in the summer months. But, it's worth investigating.

The above list is not an exhaustive list of possible cuts to be made to balance the budget.

Feel free to borrow this list in whole or in part to balance the budget in your school district.

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