Posted: June 6, 2009

Muskego-Norway — Muskego-Norway - With the State Legislature apparently ready to cut state funding of schools 3.1 percent to help relieve the state's huge budget deficit, the Muskego-Norway School District could be looking at nearly a $660,000 deficit for the coming school year, Scott Ecker, director of business services reported to the School Board on Monday.

But the consensus of the board was to soften the hit to taxpayers by using $500,000 of the approximately $1 million the district will receive in federal economic stimulus money for property tax relief.

The other half of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding cannot be used for tax relief. Staff said it appeared that money must be used for new spending. As part of the new spending in the district, the board accepted the staff recommendation to create two new positions and hire a consultant to implement the district plan for school team development.

One of the new positions would be a second literacy and staff development coach and the other would be an intervention coordinator. Both would be hired for a maximum of two years, which is when the stimulus money runs out, and both would be current staff members. They would be replaced by new people with short-term contracts.

The second literacy coach would help the schools fulfill the first goal on its five-year strategic initiative plan, which is to improve performance by improving reading, Superintendent Joseph Schroeder said. The intervention coordinator would focus on helping students who are struggling.

If it becomes possible to use stimulus money to hire replacements for retiring teachers, School Board member Eric Schroeder favored using it for that rather than for the new positions to keep taxes down.

He also suggested making cuts this year to soften the blow in 2010-11 when the drop in state aid will hit full force. He doubted that the schools have reduced staff as much as they could.

School Board President James Schaefer disagreed. Staff has been reduced by attrition, he said.

"There have been a number of years when we didn't come close to replacing all the retirees," Schaefer said.

In addition, some reductions have already been made for next year that have not reached the board level, Joe Schroeder said. Administrators always watch for reductions, he said.

But Joe Schroeder said he would rather put off significant reductions until the 2010-11 school year, even if the actions would seem more drastic. The reductions could be better thought out then, he said.

He will submit the district's plan for the stimulus money to federal authorities by July 1.

Joe Schroeder said he expects the plan to be approved.