District 304 to Present Budget Reduction Plans Monday Night
February 18, 2010
The Geneva District 304 School Board is scheduled to meet on Monday night, February 22nd at 7:00 at the Geneva Middle School North. The main agenda item is the Administration’s presentation of “Budget Development and Reduction Planning” which has been previously advertised as the staff’s ideas and recommendations for cost savings measures for the next fiscal year 2010 – 2011.
I’m not privy to what they may be contemplating, but apparently someone has gotten the Western Avenue Elementary PTO leadership fired up about the possible closure of Western and busing of their students to Fabyan Elementary. Here’s the note they sent out on Wednesday.
You may have already heard the rumors, but it was announced at last night’s PTO meeting that there will be a very important school board meeting on Feb. 22nd. This meeting will discuss the suggestion that Western and Fabyan be combined again to save money. I understand this would mean closing Western Ave. School and busing our children to Fabyan.
It is important that Western has a good amount of parents at this meeting to ask questions and hear what the board suggests. Please mark your calendars for next Monday, February 22nd. It is a regular board meeting, so currently it will be held at 7 p.m. in the District Administrative Offices, 227 N. Fourth Street. If they change the venue and/or time I’ll let you know.
Please come to show support for our school, or to at least get information. I’m sure the Board will make the best decision for the school district, but we want them to have all the information possible, including the thoughts of WAS parents.
Note that the meeting location was subsequently changed to Geneva Middle School North. District 304 has also scheduled a “Public Forum” for Saturday, March 6th, 8:30 – 10:30 am at the Geneva Middle School South cafeteria.
Monday night should really be interesting!
Comments
2 Responses to “District 304 to Present Budget Reduction Plans Monday Night”
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Advertisement
Curious. Not like this Board to admit a mistake (building Fabyan in the first place). So, maybe it’s just a rumor. Or, perhaps they’ll play the blame game. But, whom to blame besides themselves? “The economy” I guess…but wasn’t it just poor forecasting that got them to the decision to build?
It’s easy in hindsight to blame the build decision on poor forecasting, but they were far from alone and I don’t fault them for that. I do fault them for staffing up and opening Fabyan Elementary last August when they certainly knew they had the equivalent of one extra elementary school in the system. If the plan now is to really close Western, I assume they want us all to forget the millions they spent upgrading Western while they were also building Fabyan.