Community members express their concerns at the most recent board meeting:

Several community members spoke at the most recent board meeting,  expressing concerns about the possible changes in the athletic departments at both East and West. A proposal that would have reduced the hours the athletic directors were available to perform their duties throughout the week  was recently rescinded.

Community member Charlie Woodford said, “That’s just not worth it for all the work that the AD’s have to do. I think people have a misconception about what’s going on here because they’ve worked together for so long. Everybody knows what everybody’s job is. They just work like a well-oiled machine.”

Mr. Woodford went on to say that the time allotted under the original proposal wouldn’t be enough time for the AD’s and assistant AD’s to perform their duties.

“The teachers union and the administration agreed to rescind [the proposal],” said Superintendent Dr. Dosier.

Dr. Dosier also spoke of the district’s financial woes, saying “There’s not a lot of good news right now with our finances … I’ve had the misfortune of coming in at a time when we’ve had to make cuts. I’ve not made one cut or not recommended one cut that people have been happy with. My focus ... is about impacting students the least. We do not want to talk about having higher class sizes until we absolutely have to. We want to make as many cuts that don’t impact the classroom as possible before we go to classroom cuts.”

Assistant Superintendant Brian Mentzer said the education fund is currently operating at -4.752 million. “It’s hard to celebrate that,” said Mr. Mentzer, “but it’s operating at less of a deficit than it was a month prior.” The operating and maintenance fund is also showing a negative balance, operating at a deficit of 1.259 million. The overall aggregate balance according to Mentzer is 5.915 million. “The good news,” said Mentzer, “is that we still have some reserves. We have not had to access our line of credit yet. We are hopeful that the state will come through on the mandated categorical payments.” The state of Illinois currently owes the district 2.1 million dollars.

The district’s recently-amended budget will be on display in the district office until the June board meeting.

The district also approved the purchase of new textbooks for an applied mathematics course. The total purchase cost for the 80 textbooks came in at $9,328.61.

Several retirements were announced, but no new teaching positions were filled.

The board recognized West English teacher Nick Johnson and East administrative assistant Barb Hermann for their outstanding service. The board also recognized two students for earning the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest advancement rank in the Boy Scouts, and three students for their acceptance into various military academies.

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