SCHOOL BOARD TO DISCUSS CUTS OF $1 MILLION IN FUTURE BUDGET

The failure of Proposition B at the polls means the Cape Girardeau public school system is looking at a $1 million cut for the next budget year.

Superintendent Neyland Clark said he will discuss budget reductions with the Board of Education at its regular meeting today at 4:30 p.m. at 61 N. Clark.

Missouri voters defeated Proposition B, a $385 million tax-and-education-reform package, by a 2-1 margin Tuesday.

"The Proposition B vote tells us what we need to do is listen to the community," Clark said. "We need to listen in terms of what the community's expectations of schools are."

The Cape Girardeau School District supported Proposition B, though it was expected to generate only about $600,000 for Cape Girardeau schools. Clark explained those additional funds would have gone a long way toward balancing a $1 million shortfall projected in the district's budget this year.

Without the promise of that money, the superintendent said cuts must be made.

No decisions have been made yet about where the cuts will be made. "I do not even want to speculate," he said.

The method for deciding how to reduce the district's budget will likely be discussed tonight.

"The decision to make cuts has already been made. What we need to decide is what legitimate process we can go through districtwide to decide where the cuts are going to come from," Clark said.

The superintendent said additional state budget cuts will hit after the first of the year, adding to the budget crunch. Some of the cuts announced by Gov. John Ashcroft in the fall do not occur until January.

"Some districts are sending out pink slips before Christmas," Clark said. As many as 50 school districts in the state are predicted to be bankrupt by the end of the school year.

"We aren't in that kind of position," Clark said. "We have some time to look at the cuts we will have to make.

"That's why Project Partnership is so important," he said. Project Partnership was announced two months ago by Clark as a way to gather community input about long- and short-range goals for the district. A committee is in the process of being formed.

Other items on the agenda are an audit report, a review of a chapter of board policy, and a report on American Education Week to be held Nov. 17-23.