Westminster Schools Cut 4 Positions

The Westminster School District board has voted to balance the district’s $26-million budget for fiscal 1993-94 by eliminating the positions of two clerks, a psychologist and a maintenance worker.

The board voted 4 to 1 Thursday for $153,000 in cuts. Trustees Ron Morgan, Kathleen Stirling Iverson, Nancy L. Blumenthal and Sheryl Neugebauer voted in favor of the cuts, with Margie L. Rice as sole dissenter.

Supt. Gail Wickstrom said the reductions were necessary because the district failed to negotiate all the concessions from its employees unions that the board requested during earlier budget deliberations in March.

Of the four positions to be cut, the only one filled is that of the maintenance worker. That longtime employee will be reassigned as a custodian, forcing the district to lay off another custodian who was hired a few months ago, according to a report to the board.

The cuts were made from a list of potential reductions that the board approved earlier this year but did not implement.

The board also decided to keep a nurse who had been notified earlier that her job might be cut. Although the nurse has since found work elsewhere, the board decided she could return to her job if she wanted.

By making a series of spending reductions this year, the district expects to avoid future cuts as long as state officials abide by their current funding agreements with school districts, Wickstrom said.