$26.8M to Be Cut From IPS Budget (IN)
April 28, 2010
The Indianapolis Public School Board on Tuesday approved $26.8 million in sweeping budget cuts but rebuffed several requests to cut back on board and administrative expenses.
Superintendent Eugene White’s budget cuts include eliminating more than 100 teaching positions through attrition. They also eliminate the positions of 20 school police officers, 20 janitors and numerous other support staff, some of whom may be involuntarily laid off.
The approved plan does make millions of dollars in administrative cuts, including leaving clerical positions unfilled, reducing the number of high school administrators and eliminating several senior administrative posts.
But board members Kelly Bentley and Michael Cohen led a push to trim the board’s budget and White’s personal budget, saying district leaders needed to share more of the pain.
“It seems to me really inappropriate for us to be cutting back on so many critical programs . . . and for us not to do the same,” Cohen said.
Other board members voted down most of the proposals that Bentley and Cohen brought to the floor. A proposal to save $1,000 to $2,000 per year by eliminating catered meals for many School Board executive sessions passed 4-3.
Requests to cut board travel and pay, superintendent travel, district membership in associations and the purchase of tables at charity events did not pass.
Board member Marianna Zaphiriou said she would be willing to look at most of those potential cuts but said the time is not right with two new members coming onto the board in July.
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She and board member Mary Busch defended the board, saying that its travel, association memberships and food budgets were modest and spent wisely and should not be misconstrued as wasteful.
“We don’t abuse these things,” Zaphiriou said. “We can be compared to any board in the country on that.”
Other board members also solidly rejected Bentley’s proposal to create an outside task force including business leaders and efficiency experts to review the district’s spending. They said it implied that White and the board didn’t know what they were doing.
Bentley and Cohen are not seeking re-election and will leave the board in July.
Roy Schroeder, a School Board candidate, said after the meeting that he was disappointed the board didn’t look more deeply for cuts.
There are plenty of examples, he said, of employees in the central office and in schools who are overpaid or unnecessary.
Nancy Mathis, who lives near School 49, thinks White and other administrators are overpaid and spend too much on the central office.
“I think they should absolutely begin cutting administrative costs before they start eliminating teaching positions,” Mathis said. “If they cut teachers, our students are going to suffer.”