They're among the ideas offered for closing a $20-million gap in the Pinellas schools budget.
By THOMAS C. TOBIN, Times Staff Writer
Published January 24, 2006
If you had the keys to the Pinellas County school system, how would you cut $20-million to balance next year's budget?
The district's principals had a few ideas at a recent brainstorming session. Some suggestions - and they are only suggestions - were more drastic than others.
Here's a sample:
--Cut 2 percent from every department.
--Give all students free lunches to eliminate staff time needed to administer the free and reduced-price lunch program. (About 40 percent of students get free or reduced-price lunches.)
--Require students to pay to play on sports teams.
--Eliminate all sports.
--Eliminate the school choice plan.
--Rethink bus routes. (Because of choice, buses run only 60 percent full).
--Reduce art, music, chorus and physical education.
--Reduce the number of secretaries at district headquarters.
--Eliminate school librarians.
--Institute a four-day workweek.
--Out-source maintenance, school police, school nurses, food service or buses.
--Turn over debts, such as lost textbooks, to a collection agency.
--Give all 14,000 employees a 1 percent raise and make them pay health costs. (This year, the district pays 80 percent of health costs.)
