GLENDALE, Wis. — The Glendale-River Hills school district revealed plans to cut nearly one million dollars in staffing for next school year during Wednesday night's school board meeting,
Board members share it’s the first step in fixing a $3.6 million deficit.
After a week of questions about what could solve the district's budget issues, the seats were filled at the mid-week meeting.
Emotions and tensions were high at points as residents heard from board members about the beginning of a long road to fixing their finances.
Minutes into starting the meeting the board made a motion to vote on staffing reductions for the 2024/2025 school year. The decision to reduce staff was discussed during the board’s two closed-session meetings earlier this week.
It wasn’t until after a unanimous vote in its favor that board president Danielle Bailey explained to the public what was passed.
“That was an extremely vague vote and I know that’s probably why many of you are here,” Bailey admitted. “The vote that we just made was to approve one million dollars in cuts to staffing.”
Bailey said the staffing cuts will focus on attrition, resignations and retirements. The administrator shared it will minimally impact programming and will not impact class sizes.
More details, like which positions and how many teachers will be affected, won’t be released until Friday at the earliest according to the board.
“Because we value and respect our staff, I can’t speak to specifics because we want to give our administrators time to speak to anyone this impacts,” said Bailey.
Residents and teachers at the meeting shared both support and skepticism for the board's actions surrounding the multi-million dollar deficit.
Teacher Samantha Malone said during public comment, “As a current teacher I would like to thank the board and the administration team, they have been very transparent with us.”
Meanwhile, Nate Gilman, a parent in the district, said over Zoom, "You tell us you're accountable but aren't giving us any information on how this happened. You tell us you're accountable but make a one-million-dollar staffing cut in secret."
Wednesday night's meeting was the first time within the week residents heard from board members on the district's finances. Many of them offered pleas of patience and understanding to the public.
"Look at how hard we're trying, look at the effort we're putting in," Bailey said.
“Give us that opportunity to document, to show you,” Board member, Andrew Franklin, shared. “We didn’t cause the situation, but we are going to be responsible for getting us out of the situation.”
Two financial advisers have been hired to look at the district’s books. Parents and staff are expected to learn more about what next school year will look like within the next few weeks.
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