Board reviews past, present and future budget reductions

The Board of Education reviewed a recommendation from the administration for a Budget Reduction Plan focusing on decreasing ongoing expenditures. Assistant Superintendent of Business Affairs Hillarie Siena provided a report of past budget reductions, and those that are being considered for the next two school years.

"The district will continue to face financial challenges due to an unstable economy and projected student enrollment growth," said Siena.  "Continuing a budget reduction plan that began in 2010 is a proactive way for maintaining financial stability over the next two years."

District 225 remains firmly committed to maintaining quality programs and opportunities at a reasonable cost. Recent budget reduction strategies have saved the district approximately $2.2 million since 2010. This was accomplished by increasing student fees, cutting energy costs, charging service fees for credit card transactions, renegotiating vendor services contacts, and decreasing building and technology budgets. The district has also reduced overall staffing levels through attrition.

Students and Staff demonstrate technology uses in the classroom

Instructional Technology Coordinators Ryan Bretag (GBN) and David Jakes (GBS) invited students and staff to demonstrate how tools such as Google Apps, Moodle, and Twitter are used to enhance learning.  Students talked about technology applications in a diverse array of classrooms including Spanish, physics, journalism, internships, and history.

Students demonstrate classroom technologies to the Board.

GBS AP Spanish students demonstrated Google Apps for Education including the document sharing tools.  "With Google Docs, you can collaborate with anyone, at anytime, from anywhere," said senior Gabriela Chuchro.

The GBS physics students showed how teachers are using an online tool called Moodle to offer assignments and calendars. "Moodle allows teachers to post an interactive calendar, so if a student misses class, they know the assignments," said junior Ethan Boner. "If you miss school, you might not have access to your materials, but links are provided so you can still complete the assignments from home."

Students from the GBN student newspaper the Torch, talked about how they use Google Docs to run more efficiently.  "We used to have to send an email out to numerous students for editing purposes, and then we'd get back multiple copies with conflicting suggestions," said senior Stella Tu.  "Now, we can use Google Docs to share the same document among many editors."