Discussion (more)

John - I want to get back to a discussion of the proposed amendement motion. I to am concerned about where the money would come from and the distinct possibility that expenses will increase.

Dean - I hate to belabor this, but the board has not had a problem spending down a $33 million fund balance. We have the opportunity to do the right thing for our neighborhood schools. We now have a problemw ith $1.5 million decision. The whole estended family are here to support the students. If that means that we have to do the right thing and spend the $1.5 million. I am asking to spend money to support the students or the educaiton system.

Linda - we have gone through with spending in the past. Now we are disrupting lives of students and not doing ANYTHING to minimize the disruption to the students. I am comfortable taking from the fund balance to minimize this disruption.

Steve - We are always critisized for doing the same thing. Nobody has had the courage to deal with these issues in the past. 75% of the school district does not have kids in school. Where is our money going? Into keeping classroom sizes down. That helps all students in the district. I can hire more teachers. It keeps the whole class size down. We can not control that expense. Unions have a lot of power. We have to bargain with them in good faith. We can control how many we employ. We can not change the compensation schedule. Talking about 5% additional is wrong. We balance the budget EVERY year. It is really disengenuous. We have built up their reserve funds and kept their class sizes down. I'm not going to go beyond 5%. We are supposed to be talking about doing something different and doing it with the things we control. I don't feel like we can go back to tax payers and indicate that we are not closing school with so much excess capacity.

Linda - I am hearing from the community that they misinterpretted the last levy and the parents are willing to revisit the levy. That is coming from the parents. If that is something the parents and community want then we should consider it.

Dean - 2005-2006 [he is going through how much the deficit was each year - refuting what Steve said about balancing the budget] We have been using a reserve balance and have not been running a balanced budget. The school district ran for a couple years without reducing class sizes at all. When we levied for $13 million we clearly communicated that we were not reducing class sizes. OUr pattern has not be to always help the students by reducing class sizes. I am willing to make that request now.

Kim - we have a motion on the table.

Dean - seconds the motion.

Vote for the motion to pull apart the proposal - 4 against; only Dean and Linda for.