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News & Features
From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 07.02.09 edition.
School
budget pares athletics
By J.P. Crumrine, News
Editor
A major district-wide reduction will eliminate funding for middle
school sports for the coming school year. Saving $60,000, money for
coaches, referees, and travel has been completely cut, both Hemet
Unified School District (HUSD) President Glenn Figgins and Idyllwild
School Principal Matt Kraemer confirmed.
Kraemer expressed some hope that he and Idyllwild physical education
teacher Holly Guntermann may be able to mitigate this problem. Since
the Idyllwild teams predominantly play a schedule of private schools
such as Noli, Kraemer will try to find a means to keep some teams
active.
But coaches’ wages and travel expenses will still have to be found
somewhere.
“We’re considering a softball tournament at the beginning of the school
year to raise some funds,” Kraemer said. “It’ll be a tough year, but
we’ll get by.”
He also confirmed that the Jimmy Campbell Softball Tournament over
Memorial Weekend was so successful that a second tournament will be
held next spring, too.
For the second consecutive year, the HUSD budget will decline. The
budget beginning July 1 will be $175.3 million, $16.4 million less than
this year and $18.4 million less than 2007-08.
“Next year, the base revenue [from the state] could be down 17
percent,” said Figgins. “The Legislature and governor are completely
irresponsible to the people, parents, children and economy of this
state.”
At its June 23 special meeting, the HUSD board took the final actions
to balance its prospective 2009-10 budget. The choices were few and
painful, according to Figgins, and resulted in eliminating another $2
million from the proposed budget.
One of the more painful and controversial reductions was changing the
hours for health technicians and library aids from 7 to 5.5 hours per
day.
“Who can advocate that?” Figgins lamented. But these reductions should
result in a $280,000 savings next year.
This will affect Idyllwild School, too, said Kraemer. Funding for
instructional material will be less, too, he added; but the
Parent-Teacher Association will help the school in this area.
Revamping the bus routes in Hemet did not affect local children but
should yield a $700,000 savings for the district. Other district-wide
reductions include eliminating musical instrument repair ($60,000), a
10-percent reduction in athletic budgets ($100,000), reducing routine
maintenance ($500,000) and reducing stipends for extra assignments such
as departmental chairs ($64,000).
Regardless of how well individual schools can cope with the dwindling
resources, Figgins and other board members are discouraged with the
trend in school financing and governing in California.
“I’m outraged,” Figgins repeated. “One of these days the public will
realize the California Legislature is not worth acting as a single
school board for the thousand school districts in the state. The people
of the state have lost their capability for righteous outrage.”
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