School board approves 2010-11 budget recommendation

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The Hudson Board of Education approved adding $192,000 to the 2010-11 budget as recommended by district administrators at last week’s Board of Education meeting.

The recommendations were presented to the board last month by Superintendent Mary Bowen-Eggebraaten. The recommendation included changes in teaching and support staff along with program changes and operations reductions and included some additional teaching positions and reassignments due to increased enrollment and class size guidelines. The recommendation approved by the board calls for a net increase of 5.9 full-time teachers at a cost of $418,793.

That is offset by reductions in the support staff based on student needs and caseloads that would result in a savings of $144,288. In addition to the $2.3 million of budget cuts made last year, the administration says it expects to cut an additional $45,000 in operational costs in the new budget.

The recommendation also included raising the fee for driver’s education at Hudson High School by $100 next fall and dropping the program altogether in 2011-12. See related story. The fee increase would cut $37,500 from the 2010-11 bugdet.

The board approved the current recommendation that would increase the new budget by $192,005.

The board was presented a petition from teachers and staff members that asked them to re-consider their decision last year not to replace the full-time media specialist at Willow River Elementary. The school currently shares a media specialist with Houlton Elementary.

Tags: school board, education, teachers