School Chief Suggests Slew of Changes to Budget Picture; Music Program Cuts Dropped

and , Shorewood Supt. Blane McCann said Tuesday he would no longer eliminate music directorships, drop a suggestion to install district-wide Wi-Fi and reduce proposed administrative position additions in the 2011-12 budget.

The previous version of the budget had the district looking at a surplus of $152,000 for 2011-12, but Tuesday's changes turn that to a $67,563 shortfall.

“We did some revamping where we thought we had some consensus from the School Board,” McCann said.

, McCann previously made a number of recommendations, some of which came under fire from parents and residents.

McCann said the board would still look at ways of addressing the gap before finalizing its budget in late June.

One previous recommendation was elimination of music directorships, asking those music directors to teach an additional class. Music directors currently spend a period of the day one-on-one with students, but now would be forced to teach private lessons outside of the regular school day. The district would have paid a stipend for any lessons and the measure would have saved the district nearly $30,000.

With increased concern about growing class size in the district, McCann recommended adding $200,000 to fund additional teacher staff.

“Sixth grade at Lake Bluff is a hot spot … K-4 at Lake Bluff is increasing, we have a kindergarten issue at Atwater, so we are trying to watch and monitor our staffing across the district and our class size,” McCann said.

He said, however, the new teaching staff isn't designated for any certain school.

A number of teachers at a School Board meeting Tuesday asked school officials to add another sixth grade teacher at Lake Bluff.

McCann lightened the burden of some proposed administrative position additions as well. A director of administrative services position would be only part-time, adding $53,000 instead of $75,000, and a literacy coach would be less than part-time, adding $36,000 instead of $45,000. A full-time director of instruction position will add $35,000 to the budget instead of $27,000.

In addition, the district would increase a nurse position to full-time adding $29,000, and costumer position adding $11,000.

McCann eliminated a previous proposal to spend $110,000 to install wireless Internet at all the district's schools. He recommended the district add $30,000 to fund technology equipment and said he hopes they can use some of those funds to increase wireless access at Shorewood High School. He added the district has been saving funds to keep technology up to date.

"What I didn't want to do is go back to the community in five years saying we need another referendum to buy new technology," McCann said.

The district would keep two courses previously slated for cuts. The elementary orchestra program costs $20,000 and watershed wisdom, a course where students write about their experience while experiencing the Milwaukee River, costs $17,000.

McCann said because some administrative position additions won’t be put into the revised budget recommendations for next year, the district’s teacher mentoring program through Cardinal Stritch would be retained.

Federal jobs bill money not previously factored in the budget proposals was also added to the new budget recommendations, McCann said. That change would add $95,000 in revenue next year.

The Shorewood SEED Foundation donated $70,000 for textbooks last year, but will not help fund this year’s expense.

The district would also keep contributing $5,000 to the village marketing campaign.

The district will formally adopt its budget in October.