The Amador County Office of Education’s Budget Advisory Committee met to finish the task of compiling a list of proposed budget cuts totaling more than 2 million dollars. One of the proposed cuts was the district contribution to Amador’s high school libraries. Yvonne Lindecker, librarian at Argonaut High School, gave a detailed overview of the services provided by Amador’s school libraries, and stressed their importance to Amador’s high schoolers. Some of the larger cuts included cutting counselors at the junior high and high schools, reducing nursing services, and reducing district office staff, as well as other certificated and classified staff. 

Smaller budget cuts included charging for bus transportation, reducing supplies and postage costs, combining freshman and junior varsity sports, and eliminating various Board expenses. These proposed cuts were addressed at the School Board meeting Wednesday night. The board commended the Budget Advisory Committee for all of their hard work on the difficult task set before them. Among the budget cuts that were approved by the board were resolutions to cut one full-time junior high counselor, a half-time high school counselor, .8 of a full-time school nurse, and a total of 1.67 of various other positions.

The reduction of a music teacher by one half of a fulltime position was the only resolution rejected by the board, which elicited a collective sigh of relief, followed by a loud round of applause. “I am speechless.  I am overwhelmed at the outpouring of support from the community,” says Tootle. The next step in the budget process will be to forward these resolutions on to the State of California.