Orland Elementary School District 135 plans more than $1.5 million in budget cuts in an effort to trim its education fund deficit for the 2004-05 school year.
In a school board meeting this week, Supt. Linda Anast-May said the trims would slice the district’s deficit from $4.3 million to less than $3 million. Music and special education would be hit hard.
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Anast-May said the district’s deficit would continue to deteriorate if “prudent measures” were not taken. “We will never get out of debt if we continue to approve overages and increases,” she said.
The plan includes several job cuts, including 24 paraprofessionals in special education, an assistant principal and eight office assistants in the elementary schools.
Special education reductions involve combining programs and schedule revisions.
Terry Devine, a parent with a special needs child who will enter junior high in the fall, fears special ed cuts will adversely affect her son. “The paraprofessional cuts are enormous,” she said. “That may mean the difference between success and failure for a child.”
Devine asked the board to consider the impact the reduction plan will have on special needs families.