GLENDALE, Wis – Facing a $3.6 million budget deficit, the Glendale-River Hill School District was forced to make significant cuts to staffing while hoping to maintain the quality of education.
On Wednesday, March 20, the school board unanimously approved $1 million in cuts, resulting mostly in staff reductions from retirements or resignations.
The district put out a statement on their Facebook Friday with details on the cost-cutting measures to bring the district out of its deficit. The 13 staff positions cut include 2 building substitutes at both Parkway Elementary School and Glen Hills Middle School, in addition to a world language teacher and a math teacher at the middle school. The district office will lose a custodian and the registrar.
The full text of the statement from the Glendale-River Hills School District can be found here.
In the statement, the district said they remain committed to ensuring that schools would remain open and the quality of educational instruction would continue:
We are grateful for the dedicated leadership team and staff in our district who continue to prioritize our learners, especially during times of uncertainty and change. Our dedicated administration and board will forge ahead in building a fiscally responsible path forward, while always keeping in mind our singular goal of offering an exceptional education to our students.
– Glendale-River Hills School District
The Glendale-River Hills School District discovered the budget shortfall in January “because of errors in accounting and budgeting by employees who are no longer in the district”. The district’s finance director Lindsay Johnson resigned in January after “grossly misestimating the district’s financial position during the budget process“. District Superintendent Alyson Weiss resigned in February.
The district hired Gus Knitt as the interim business manager, and Todd Gray as a financial consultant for the school. Both Knitt and Gray are former public school business managers and superintendents. They are working with Baird to investigate past revenue and spending.