Preview: Hundreds Expected at WHS Tonight as School Officials Seek to Approve Cuts to Personnel, Expenditures

The Westlake Board of Education will meet tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the cafeteria to discuss the option of .

If the resolution under consideration passes, it would reduce positions, suspend contracts and make cuts to the district’s transportation services. 

The board met last Wednesday behind closed doors at the Westlake City Schools administrative building to discuss these reduction measures and to prepare for bargaining sessions with Ohio Association of Public School Employees and the Westlake Teachers Association. 

During the board’s May 9 work session at Hilliard Elementary, Superintendent Dr. Dan Keenan and treasurer Mark Pepera proposed to cut operating expenses by $950,000 and personnel by $1.12 million to counter the $2.1 million in proposed state funding losses that could hit the district during the 2011-12 school year. 

Board members Tim Sullivan and Nate Cross argued that Keenan’s and Pepera’s cuts didn’t go deep enough and demanded the board should collectively agree to freeze wage increases, cut salaries and increase the percentage of contributions that teachers kick into their benefit and pension packages. 

Hundreds are expected to turn out for tonight’s meeting to hear how the board wants to proceed.