Agenda - 04-25-2013 - 1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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provided for needed school supplies and to support technology needs for teachers and students in our high schools. We have also recommended additional funds to support professional development and curriculum development. An additional $141,425 in funding is necessary to support needs in this area. We have also included $120,000 in funding for safety and security related expenses. While the district has always placed an emphasis on health and safety in all that we do, recent horrific local and national events at schools have elevated our community's concerns and desires for an even greater emphasis. We feel that moving forward we will need to have a constant and continued focus on this area. This area continues to be a work in progress as we consult with local law enforcement and outside consultants on what our district will need moving forward. The structure of the expenditures may change as it becomes clearer. We have already begun to handle facility needs through our CIP funding. Finally, we have recommended $164,095 in additional funding to support general administrative and supply expenditures. The majority of this is to provide necessary custodial supplies to schools. A small but critical addition for recruiting qualified talented teachers and administrators is also recommended. Included in this section is support for the Superintendent's office with respect to attorney fees, leadership initiatives, and communications. Budget Reallocations In developing the budget, we looked internally to identify what we could do differently and what could be restructured or reprioritized. In total we identified nearly $900,000 in expenditures that could be reduced to help minimize the budget increases. We are recommending that we reduce the contracted services budget within the Instructional Services Division. At the middle school level, we are recommending that we change how we staff in- school suspension and we are recommending a teacher assistant allocation reduction at the middle school level. This would yield a net savings of about $420,000. Historically the middle schools exchange these positions for additional teacher allocations. A review of their current staffing levels and course loads show that there are areas in which savings could be achieved. A similar situation exists at the high school level. With the pending arrival of Power School (a new student information management system), we are creating new guidelines and procedures for schools to use when developing schedules. We expect that this will create more accurate schedules and through this process more efficiently allocate teacher positions to schools. It may result in some staff having to teach in two locations or having some positions filled with a part time employee. We also anticipate that we may need to make some decisions on when or whether to offer some low enrollment courses. We will be implementing other changes that do not have a dollar impact, but do help us achieve our goals. Some of these changes include a restructuring of the Middle School After 1 -3