Looming school budget cuts more severe than previously thought in Idaho

SUGAR SALEM - Governor Otter's vague announcement of upcoming 1.6 percent cuts in governmental entities is likely to be 4 times as severe.

"I think one of the toughest things for superintendents right now is we want to be positive. We recognize that our staff members want to provide a quality education, and yet we want to be honest with them because we can't surprise our staff members all the sudden with cuts and things we've got to let them know what we're looking forward to." said Superintendent Alan Dunn.

In a February Newsletter, Superintendent Alan Dunn outlines the cost of several programs... including field trips, extra curricular activities, and resource officers. Even if Dunn cut them all, the district could still be left short in funding next year.

"The legislators is now talking about cuts of almost 10%. In our district that would equate to somewhere around $800,000. We have looked at a whole variety of things. Places that where we could make that up," said Dunn.

That's including cuts for this year and next year. Add that to a 3% loss of revenue from last fall, and...

"Anytime you have cuts of this magnitude, quality is going to go down... It's impossible for (teachers) to give that same quality education that they might have had before," said Dunn.

Dunn also made it clear that no cuts are final, but everything is on the table.

Voters in several districts have had to pass supplemental levies over the last year or two.

In the Sugar-Salem district, administrators are now considering asking voters to approve the first levy in recent memory.

Category:

News & Politics

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• sugar
• salem
• school
• district
• budget
• cuts