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--> --> ASD solicits opinion on budget By Maggie McGehee Ashland Daily Tidings Community members will get the chance to offer their opinions to Ashland School District officials, who are holding a series of community meetings on the district's impending budget crisis. The Ashland School District board of directors has called a special session for Monday where it will appoint three new budget committee members and gather information from the public on how the district can spend less money without having to reduce staffing. The first of the community meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday at Helman Elementary School. The board will also be reviewing the district's $20 million budget for this year, discuss recommendations on spending priorities and discuss ways to reduce future expenditures. Officials have stated earlier that they are not ruling anything out when it comes to the budget - including closing an elementary school and leasing it until it is more financially feasible. An elementary school closure would allow the school district to save operating and administrative costs associated at the school while minimizing the number of staff members that would be terminated, officials said. The district's enrollment this year is holding close to the projections on which this year's budget was developed, but more students will be graduating this year than are entering into kindergarten, putting the district into a declining enrollment situation. The district's enrollment is important to its budget because the district receives funding from the state on a per-student basis. At present, that figure is about $5,000 per student. At this point, no plans for coping with a possible budget shortfall have been set. The only thing officials said for sure is that they would be looking at everything. However, the district had to cope with an $840,000 budget shortfall for this school year and slashed the full-time equivalent of 13.83 staff members to make up the difference. If the Legislature reconvenes and slashes the governor's $5.2 billion education package, the district's already tight budget will see even more cuts. Eighty-five percent of the district's $20 million budget for this school year goes toward staff, and officials are saying that if state funding to Ashland schools is cut, it will be very difficult to avoid more layoffs. Other meetings are scheduled at the remaining four elementary schools and they are slated for November and December. The budget committee will conduct the same meeting as Monday on the following dates and locations: Nov. 26 at Lincoln, Nov. 27 at Walker, Dec. 4 at Briscoe and Dec. 11 at Bellview. All meetings are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing