There’s still some belt-tightening happening at the Austin Public Schools’ administration building.

Thursday, April 27, 2000

There’s still some belt-tightening happening at the Austin Public Schools’ administration building. Now the positions being scrutinized for cuts and consolidation happen to be administrative in nature.

At Wednesday’s board workshop, board members started off by reducing the combined athletic and co-curricular travel budget by half, and approving the reduction of the summer ag stipend from $4,000 to $2,196.

The board got to business looking at a sheet entitled "Scenario Two," one of several finance-trimming scenarios that has been discussed recently.

Scenario Two would bring the English-as-a-second-language program under the auspices of the special education director, cut the special education secretary to half-time, and relocate the department to Woodson School.

The community education department also would undergo changes, combining community education and early childhood family education under one director, restructuring and also relocating to Woodson.

"We think this will be a good alignment," Hess said.

The Cedar River education district coordinator/grant coordinator would take over several programs, including monitoring graduation standards, staff development, supervising high potential programs, and the youth apprenticeship program, among others. The position would be funded by grants, the Cedar River Education District and the general fund. They represent a further $67,500 in savings for the district.

"We’ve come a long way," Hess said.

These cuts will be finalized at a 7:30 a.m. Monday board meeting.

The district also had been looking at hiring a new assistant golf coach, but it was determined that bringing in someone new during this time of budget crunch would be a bad idea.

The high potential program will continue as it is. The board had been looking at cutting the high potential coordinator’s position, but schools Superintendent Dr. James Hess said they will look elsewhere in the program for ways to make cuts.