WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderDistrict 100 budget meeting draws crowd, emotions

District 100 budget meeting draws crowd, emotions

By Marissa Alter

BELVIDERE (WREX) - The threat of teacher layoffs in the Belvidere School District draws about 200 people to a public meeting on District 100's budget options. Belvidere says it needs to prepare for the worst in case state aid doesn't come in, but that means pink slips for all first, second, and third year teachers.

Right now Illinois owes Belvidere $2.8 million, but that number could hit $4 million by the end of June. Emotions came out at tonight's meeting as that reality hit students, parents, and staff.

Belvidere sophomore Nicole Woelber broke down in tears as she talked about her geometry teacher who'd be cut.

"She's really helped me out. I never had an 'A' or a 'B' or a 'C.' It was always a 'D' or 'F.'" This year Nicole has an 86% average in geometry.

And she wasn't the only student who shared a story. "If she gets fired, I honestly don't know how I'll make it through every school day without her," said another high school student.

Other students were angry, promising an uprising if the district went through with the cuts. "We will rebel so much," Felicia Safranek promised. "These teachers help us in other ways than just learning. If you cut them, we'll drop out, or we'll come here and do nothing."

Superintendent Michael Houselog told the crowd he understands the frustration but says district leaders aren't the ones to blame. "We're hoping that people can funnel this enthusiasm they have to encourage members of our general assembly and our governor to work together to find a solution to this dilemma that we're in. We aren't the ones who really created this problem."

Teacher John Seeber is a 33-year veteran of District 100 and questions why it can't use its reserves, like the Rockford School District. "Whether they're smarter than we are or we are than them, I'm not sure. But it seems like we are using a pretty broad stroke on people when maybe we could be a little more surgical about it."

"About $17-18 million we have in reserves,"Houselog answered. "We're already tapping into that for two million. If further cuts are made at the state level, those reserves will not be lasting very long."

The Belvidere School Board votes on the staff cuts at its meeting Monday night, but won't make any decisions about program eliminations yet.

Houselog says the district hopes to hire some of those teachers back as it gets a clearer idea of just what the state's funding will be. He says the FY2011 Budget is a continually changing document.

The governor's budget address yesterday, which proposed a 17% cut to general state aid, would put Belvidere back another $2 million for next year.