CHERRY VALLEY – The upcoming budget discussion schedule was the
focus of last week’s Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School Board of
Education meeting. In a presentation before the board, Superintendent
Nicholas Savin mentioned how, at this point in time, figures are
difficult to present. “In the past I was able to be more predictive. By
March I’ll have to be,” he said.
The community and parents will have the opportunity to discuss the
budget Feb. 28. After that, there will be two meetings in March (March
2 and March 16) and two in April (April 6 and April 13) with the
annual budget review meeting set for May 4.
Throughout the budget preparations, meetings will be held with the
different department grade levels, administrators, the high school
student council and the community and parents.
As far as the student council goes, Savin said that these are “very
interesting conversations. They can give a perspective that’s different
and can tell you what they’d like to see changed on a day to day basis.”
Future goals and a five year vision will also be addressed. “Where
do we want to be in five years? We’ve got to develop a plan to get
there,” he said.
Enlisting aid from BOCES is an integral part of his plans, with
plans to utilize available assistance for this year and additional
assistance in planning for next year.
Some of the plans they will be looking at include reducing the lunch
schedule from three lunches to two in an attempt to reduce the need for
supervision. One resident, Kat Chiba, voiced concerns with the proposed
changes in the lunch period. Her issue was the lack of free time some
students have, and how sometimes lunch periods are used to access
computer time necessary for assignments.
“I think it shouldn’t be a knee jerk reaction. They need time to
decompress. They may be going wild because they need more time to
relax,” she said. “With lunch reduced to a half hour, it’s going to be
hard to get computer time and have lunch.”
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