Big Hollow Cuts Art & Music

From the July 10 Chicago Tribune. This just continues to prove how poorly the school board has performed over the years, thinking the taxpayers were going to give them everything they wanted. Now we have three beautiful new schools, paid for by the taxpayers, that will have unused art and music rooms. They knew the district was going to keep growing, otherwise they never would have built the new schools in the first place. Yet they knew they were in over their heads, and figured the taxpayers would just bail them out.

And is it any wonder that the "Big Hollow Schools" sunburst has suddenly disappeared from all of Remington Homes' billboards!

---

Cash-strapped Big Hollow schools cut art, music classes

By Robert Channick
Special to the Tribune
Published July 10, 2007
The beleaguered Big Hollow school board, faced with uncomfortable choices to help balance the Ingleside district's budget, voted unanimously Monday night to eliminate all art and music classes for the 2007-08 school year.

The District 38 board also voted to reduce the number of computer classes, eliminating them in kindergarten and middle school and cutting them from twice to once a week for Grades 1 through 5.

The cuts are projected to save $245,000. The eight teachers -- three in art, two in music and three in computer technology -- will be reassigned, eliminating the need for new entry-level hires.

In May the board cut $1 million from programs, including lunch, recess, art, music and computer classes, and shortened the school day by 45 minutes. But the board was forced to rescind the cuts because they were enacted in violation of the state's open meeting law. The community's anger and concern about the cuts prompted the board to hold off on reinstating them.

"We have come to the conclusion that computer, lunch and recess are probably the three most important items to the public," board President Vickie Gallichio said Monday.

Still aiming for $1 million in cuts, the board has negotiated a new cleaning services contract, saving $117,000, board member Todd Wright said.

With an extra $352,000 in miscellaneous savings, including changes to the bus schedule and turning all extracurricular sports into pay-for-play activities, Wright said the district has reached a total of $714,000 in projected savings.

Next week, the board will consider revenue-generating ideas from the independent Big Hollow Citizens Advisory Committee. Suggestions range from doubling the registration fee to $300 per pupil to renting out facilities.

Serving parts of Ingleside, Fox Lake, Round Lake, Volo and Lakemoor, the fast-growing district had to borrow $5.4 million in the last three years and faces a $3 million operating shortfall for the coming school year. The 1,400-pupil district serves kindergartners through 8th graders.

Four referendum measures have failed in the last five years, most recently in April when voters rejected a tax increase by a 2-1 ratio. A new referendum measure is being considered for February, officials said.