The principals from the school system's elementary, middle and high schools as well as the high school athletic director presented their proposed 2010-11 budgets to the Board of Education on Monday night.
"Your bang for your buck is really notable," said athletic director Carl Charles, whose proposed budget will increase $43,714, to $1.2 million.
These increases include swallowing an increase in the cost of rink time for the hockey teams at Winter Garden Ice Arena, rehiring an assistant cheerleading coach, upgrading a paraprofessional to a secretary and eliminating a weight training fee at Tiger Hollow.
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The elementary school principals—and, subsequently, administrators from the middle and high schools—voiced their support for introducing all-day kindergarten in the fall, a projected $770,500 budget expense. The total proposed increase for the elementary schools' budget is 5.77 percent, bringing spending to $6,308 per student.
The middle school presentation was brief, presenting what East Ridge Middle School principal Marty Fiedler called a "rollover budget." The proposal includes adding a seventh grade teacher at Scotts Ridge to deal with an unusually large class (the projected sixth grade population crunch was resolved with a minor redistricting last week).
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And the high school presentation proposals included increasing the student life coordinator from 0.2 to 0.6 position, a $22,000 increase, more in-school suspension supervision, promoting a library paraprofessional and adding 0.5 teacher because of a rising student population.
The total proposed schools budget is $78.98 million, a 2.87 percent increase over the current year's budget. The next budget workshop in on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.
