District 205 continues to look for ways to prepare for the event that they receive no state payments in the next fiscal year.
Superintendent Ralph Grimm requested in an email to district staff today that every district employee take a hard pay freeze next school year, with the exception of those in the retirement pipeline.
He acknowledges that the Galesburg Education Association and General Services Union will have to negotiate and ratify the request.
The Illinois General Assembly adjourned from the year’s legislative session on Tuesday without having approved any appropriations for K-12 education in the next year.
Grimm told a meeting of the schools of Regional Office of Education 33 schools last month that Galesburg schools would have to close in February without state funds.
The Superintendent announced in a separate letter yesterday to district stakeholders that an alternate budget was being prepared for FY17 which accounts for $17 million less in revenue.
Grimm says in an email to WGIL that the option was put on the table because the district is “looking for ways to help our students as much as possible”, adding focus must “first and foremost be on students.”
