Somers Lakeside School District 29 is working with a smaller budget after a levy failed earlier this spring. New Superintendent Paul Jenkins said some teachers will be laid off and courses reduced in an effort to save about $75,000 during the 2012 – 2013 school year. The budget will be finalized next month.
Although budget changes will be noticeable, parents and the recently established Somers Lakeside Boosters were concerned the cuts would be even deeper. During a school board meeting earlier this summer, some members suggested that fifth grade girls basketball, fifth and sixth grade boys basketball and fifth grade band would also be cut.
“It’s been a big shock to a lot of the parents that they’d cut the programs,” said Laura O’Conner, director of the nonprofit boosters.
In hopes of making up for part of the budget deficit, O’Conner and a group of parents established the new boosters group to organize fundraisers. On July 28, the Homestead in Lakeside will host a barbecue to raise money for the Somers Middle School football team.
“Part of what we’re doing as the Somers boosters is providing people with a way to help out,” O’Conner said.
But Jenkins said those programs would not be cut. Instead, a fifth-grade teacher and a para-educator will be let go, sections of a Spanish and remedial math class dropped and technology position had its hours reduced. A handful of retirements and resignations also made tightening the budget easier and Jenkins said the teachers hired to replace those departures are recent college graduates and will be paid a base salary.
“Cuts are always difficult because you want to maintain a high level of education so you have to make cuts, be creative and hope for the best,” he said.
Jenkins said the cuts may not have been necessary had a general operation levy passed in May, when locals shot it down, voting 626 against and 515 for.
O’Conner said the budget cuts and the levy’s failure are what sparked interest in creating a boosters group. The Somers Lakeside Boosters is a nonprofit organization and is currently trying to secure a 501c-3 designation. O’Conner was pleased to find out some of the extracurricular activities on the chopping block will likely be saved in the coming months, but said her group would push on and help the school district anyway it could. She also said money that doesn’t go to the school to help pay for various programs may also be turned into a scholarship fund.