Schools

School District Could be Facing $8 Million in Cuts

Reduction in state aid and revenue caps proposed in Gov. Scott Walker's budget.

The Waukesha School District is facing about a $8 million budget deficit based on preliminary numbers that were announced in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget on Tuesday.

The budget deficit estimate comes after a short amount of time calculating the data announced in Walker’s budget addresss, said Waukesha Superintendent Todd Gray on Tuesday.

“They were pretty close to what we were estimating,” Gray said.

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The school board Tuesday night approved contracts for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years that included a changed salary schedule, which would drastically slow down number of years it would take teachers to climb to the top paid position in the district.

The teaching contracts approved Tuesday night remain in place until the end of June, but the salary schedule will remain the same. With about a $1 million savings projected for the 2011-12 school year, the salary schedule changes will help meet the budget cuts in upcoming state budget.

Find out what's happening in Waukeshawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

While it is not immediately clear where the other $7 million in reductions will come from, Gray said Tuesday night he is confident the district will find a solution. Property taxes can not be raised under Walker’s budget.

“We did work those numbers,” Gray said. “We think we are in pretty good shape to cover most of that.”

The primary goal in negotiations was to change the salary schedule, said Waukesha School Board President Dan Warren in response to people who thought the district passing the contracts for this school year and last school year undermined the governor’s budget. Since the teaching contracts expire in June, the school district would be able to use the tools in place in the budget repair bill that Walker is proposing for the 2011-12 school year.

“You know what?” Warren said. “This board needs many of the tools that are being proposed in Madison without significant teacher layoffs that would have direct negative impact to the teaching and learning in this district.”


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