The Kaneland School Board voted down a recommendation to add new stipends and change the existing compensation for faculty advisers of after-school activities.
They did vote to reinstate stipends for volunteer coaches, however.
The School Board in a 3 to 2 vote decided against creating 10 additional stipends and changing the pay for a group of others. The expenditure would have added approximately $37,000 annually to the budget.
Board President Teresa Witt and board members Pedro Rivas and Ryan Kerry voted against the request for the stipends. Board members Cheryl Krauspe and Gale Pavlak voted the other way.
The recommendation from the district’s differentials/stipends committee came on the heels of a newly negotiated contract with the union that represents Kaneland teachers. The committee is comprised of Kaneland Education Association union leadership and members, as well as building principals and district administrators.
“We are already in deficit spending for this year,” Witt said Monday as for her reason to vote against the new stipends.
In another 3 to 2 vote the School Board approved stipends for existing coaching positions that are not funded. Voting in favor were Krauspe, Pavlak and Rivas. Voting the other way were Witt and Kerry. Depending on the years experience of the coaches it will cost the district $28,740 to $43,911 for the positions.
Witt said although it was a difficult decision she could not support using the district’s fund balances for the stipends either for clubs and other activities or the coaching positions.
“The approval of the contract with the Kaneland Education Association added to our annual expenditures. These items would have increased recurring expenditures even more,” she said.
The district made $1.5 million in budget cuts in 2009 during the economic downturn, which included stipends for advisers of clubs and other activities as well as volunteer coaches.
Administrators Sarah Mumm and Mike Purcell in a report to the School Board said, “Our extra-curricular activities, particularly athletics, assumed a large portion of the burden” in those budget reductions.
The School Board postponed the decision on stipends for advisers and coaches last June while they were in the midst of teacher contract negotiations.
The district’s differentials/stipends committee recently presented their requests for stipends for clubs and activities mainly at the high school and middle school levels, with one at the elementary grade level for a writing coach.
Several coaching positions were presented as well. The administrators said the list of coaching positions were prioritized in collaboration with athletic directors at the high school and middle school, taking into account increased safety and access for high school boys basketball, girls basketball and volleyball, as well as middle school cross country and track.
Witt said she doesn’t support drawing from the district’s fund balance for the expenditures.
“While we have a fund balance, I do not believe it is good practice to pay for recurrent charges with a fixed fund balance,” Witt said.
Witt said doing so would leave the district with expenditures greater than expected revenues and the district would be forced to make budget cuts again.
“On one hand, it is difficult to vote down stipends for coaches and club sponsors who spend time with our students. On the other hand, I did not feel I had enough information to justify the need for all of the positions,” she said.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
