Tension Among School Board Members Grows as Budget Woes Loom
Debate over where to cut school budget causes bitterness, disagreement among members but teacher contract negotiations will move forward.
School board members Nate Cross and Tim Sullivan openly aired their frustrations to the public over what they believe is a complete mishandling by school administrators to bridge budget gaps that will be created by impending state funding losses at Monday night’s Board of Education work session. As it stands, Westlake City Schools are expected to lose $4.9 million in state funding over the next two years, which means cuts to personnel and operating expenditures would be necessary to help balance the district’s $42-million annual budget. Superintendent Dan Keenan and treasurer Mark Pepera proposed to reduce operating expenditures for next school year by $950,000. To achieve these cuts, field trips, high school and staff transportation, and…
Westlake Resident-Joe Smith
6:13 pm on Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The Voters of Westlake agreed to have new buildings built. If the Westlake City Schools had kept up with the demand of maintenance and upgrades it would have been throwing good money after bad. The taxpayers would then claim this as irresponsible. Mr. Tock's claim of underfunding is not true. During this time period, school districts everywhere were plunging into the RED while Westlake was … more ›