Budget Advisory Committee Delivers Progress Report to School Board

Last night during a meeting of the Dixon Unified School District Board of Education, the school board and the public received an update on what the Budget Advisory Committee has been working on since the beginning of the year.

The board is entrusted with advising the school board on everything from boosting revenue to expenditure reductions. It is comprised of teachers, parents, community members and district staff.

At Thursday’s meeting, several committee members were in attendance but only four members – Cecile Nunley, Courtney Kett, Erin DeWeese and Debbie Lopez – addressed the board.

DeWeese told the board that each of their meetings begins with a reminder of the district’s goals

“The primary mission of the Dixon Unified School District is to provide a quality education opportunity to each learner attending Dixon schools,” she told the board.

With that in mind, the committee members have combed through the district’s expenses and have brainstormed ways to create revenue opportunities.

One idea presented to the school board Thursday was to renegotiate the lease for the district offices and for the site of Silveyville Elementary School. Another idea was to offer large attendance incentives for students and teachers; Local businesses would donate gifts monthly such as iPods, iTunes gift cards or flip cameras, which would be awarded to a student who met certain attendance guidelines.

The committee has also been figuring out from where to cut expenditures so that it may advise the school board when the time comes for them to make those decisions. Handouts given to the school board and members of the audience were color-coded. Expenditure cuts appearing in green represented items that the commission decided would have less of a negative impact on the district.

One of those items included the reduction of Supplemental Employees Retirement Plans (SERPA) by $175,000 by fiscal year 2012-2013. Another green item included the temporary freeze of professional development conferences, which would save the district $88,956 by fiscal year 2012-2013.

Items that appeared in the red color code represented items that the commission decided would have a more negative impact on the district. One of the items at the top of the list included the elimination of the curriculum director, saving the district $271,943 by fiscal year 2012-2013. Another was to impose eight furlough days, which would save the district a little over $1 million.

The commission is also keeping a close eye on the governor’s budget and is crossing its fingers in support of the state legislature's adoption of the governor’s proposal to extend taxes. Should the proposal receive a two-thirds-majority vote, it would be placed on a ballot for the public to have the final word on it. Districts all over the state, including Dixon, have relied on those tax revenues to keep them afloat.

All of the school board members praised the commission for the hard and important work they are doing. But at least one school board member, Irina Okhremtchouck, suggested to the committee that they adopt some type of structure to their meetings.

Okhremtchouck told the commission members present that she was not able to make public comment during one of the meetings, prompting the suggestion. But Kett told Okhremtchouck that the commission welcomes public comment constantly at its meetings and told Okhremtchouck that her comments last night were insulting to the hard work that they have been doing. 

Both Herb Cross and John Gabby, said that the commission should be run independently of the school board and that it was not the board's place to tell the commission how to run their meetings.

Originally, the advisory board meetings were not held openly, which raised concerns about Brown Act violations, but since then it has opened up the meetings to the public and made all of its documents available at the district’s offices.

Visit http://www.dixonusd.org/forms/news.asp?Q=133 to see more information or the documents presented last night. The advisory committee meets each Wednesday, at 5 p.m., at , 415 East C St.