Now, as the opening of school nears, the trustees face some hard and almost certainly painful choices immediately on spending cuts. And once that onerous task is completed, they face the likelihood, if not the certainty, of even more trauma in the future. But even if the cuts are approved, the district will still be wrestling with a deficit and a state-mandated teacher pay hike. Ironically, the district is actually shrinking. Enrollment is projected to drop several hundred students this year and continue to drop in the years immediately ahead.
Fewer students means less support from the state.
Fewer students would seemingly translate as well into fewer teachers, fewer principals, fewer schools and, thereby, lowered costs in the future. The district's trustees will be facing some key issues in the coming weeks and months. It can be argued that these issues should have been on the table months ago. Perhaps they would have been if the energies and emotions of the district hadn't been consumed in wasteful and, it is now confirmed, distracting controversy. All rights reserved.