Unit 5 saves music programs, cuts more than 30 positions | Local Education

This story will be updated.

NORMAL — After a seven-hour meeting largely filled with impassioned public comments, the McLean County Unit 5 Board of Education voted to move forward with budget cuts affecting dozens of positions but spare the fifth grade instrumental music programs that had been set for elimination.

The cuts did include the eighth grade foreign language program, 36 teacher positions and two administrator positions. The proposed cuts of the band and orchestra programs would have affected two more teaching positions.

Board members indicated that more painful decisions remained in the future if the district couldn’t find another source of revenue, such as a referendum asking voters to increase the education fund tax rate.

“If we don’t get a referendum or another source of revenue to the tune of about $11 million, that deficit is going to grow,” board president Amy Roser.

The education fund tax rate has increased by only 10 cents since 1983, Superintendent Kristen Weikle has said. The last increase was in 2008.

Without action, the district’s structural deficit was estimated to be around $14 million in the next fiscal year and to continue increasing. The total across the next three fiscal years would be around $54 million, officials have said.

After a closed session following the public comments, board member Barry Hitchens moved to remove the music programs from the cuts. The measure passed unanimously.

Class sizes may increase, Weikle said, including high school classes becoming around 30 students.

Other program changes include reducing what the district calls “sixth assignments” where a teacher gives up a plan period to teach an extra class, in exchange for increased pay. At the elementary level, some extra duty positions, like advising student council, will be reduced or cut to save on the stipends that go with them.

Unit 5’s program for students to receive an associate’s degree in computer science will be based only in Normal West High School. Students at Normal Community will still be able to participate but will attend Normal West to do so.

The other staff reductions are being handled through normal loss of teachers and involuntary transfers.

A total of 75 people signed up to make public comments, though some had to leave early. Board President Amy Roser allowing other people to read statements from students who could not attend or who had to leave before the meeting concluded after 1 am, and the board ultimately heard from 69 people.