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Published on: 6/1/2008
Last Visited: 6/2/2008
"We made all the cuts in programs that would have been new additions next year," said John Heise, school board president.
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Heise said he and other board members will meet with football parents on Monday to see if they can hash something out.
"These have all been tough cuts to make," he said."They're painful and all the additions were things we thought were necessary for the kids."
But, he said, if the district is forced to a contingency budget, cuts will be deeper and more painful.
"With a contingency budget, we will have to cut $500,000 more and that would be devastating to the district," he said."Then, everything will be on the table for cuts."
Collins and Heise have differing views on why their community was one of only a handful across the state to shoot down their school budget.
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Heise said he believes Holley's proposed three-quarter percent tax increase (which would have increased the tax rate by about 20 cents per $1,000) was still too much for community members to accept, and he thinks others felt the district was moving too fast in adding new athletic and academic programs.
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But no matter the reason for the budget's failure, "the budget went down and we have to deal with that reality," said Heise.