MERRILL, Wis. (WSAU) – The Merrill school board will be meeting tonight on a wide number of topics related to looming budget cuts.
The school board recently readied preliminary layoff notices for dozens of teachers ahead of the budget cycle in a worst case scenario. The reasoning was presented last month in 4 tiers of possible cuts, with the most severe cuts totaling nearly 3 million in dollars along with the closing of Maple Grove and Pine River elementary schools.
School board president Jeff Verdourn says those cuts would only come to pass if the state legislature makes cuts to school funding instead of leaving those funds at the 2010 levels.
Tonight's meeting will approve that range of layoffs both at the elementary level and in a number of grant funded positions like the SAGE program. The school board will also look at changes to the schedule at Prairie River Middle School to accommodate the teacher reductions, and possibly reviewing and rescinding the motion that approved the first round of budget cuts.
Tonight's meeting starts at 5:30 at the high school auditorium.
