ABC Schools : Librarian, Sports Program Eliminated in $3-Million Cut

School district officials have cut next year’s budget by $3 million, doing away with the district’s only librarian, the junior high school sports program and 27 classified positions, including bilingual aides, maintenance workers and janitors.

Board members approved cuts that also will reduce by 25% the budgets that school principals use to buy materials such as books and computer labs.

The district will dip into its lottery reserves for $1.1 million to help offset its projected budget shortfall. In the past, the district has reserved its lottery income for one year to be certain of the amount it would receive before spending it, officials said.

A majority of board members agreed to make replenishing the campus budgets and the lottery fund their priority if the district receives more money from the state than projected.

Board member David Montgomery, who usually votes with the minority, joined four other board members to approve the overall list of cuts by a 5-2 vote.

Members Cecy Groom and Sally Morales Havice rejected the cuts as damaging to students.

In February, the school board approved $5.9 million in cuts, but last month the district learned it would lose additional state grants, and officials now expect higher county fees and other expenditures to increase next year’s deficit by another $3 million.

More than 100 teachers and parents filled the district boardroom Tuesday to protest the cuts, calling them damaging to employee morale and student performance.

Librarians argued that the elimination of the district’s only certificated librarian would lead to the eventual decline of the district’s book collection.

In 1991-92, the district removed all certificated librarians from the secondary schools. Three were assigned to train clerks and order materials for the entire district, but that number was reduced to one in February.

Next year, the libraries will be maintained by clerks, teachers or district administrators.