Pirate Cove Academy closed by ICC trustees in budget-cutting move

BY ANDY TAYLOR

INDEPENDENCE — The director of the Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College cried foul Tuesday concerning a proposed 53 percent cut in the center’s budget for 2009-10.

Peter Ellenstein, center director, said the proposed 53 percent cut in the center’s budget ($321,683 in the 2008-09 budget to $150,000 in the college’s proposed 2009-10 budget) was far different than what he was anticipating. In telling the trustees about a budget preparation meeting with ICC finance director Jan Fischer in May, Ellenstein said he was led to believe that the center’s budget would be reduced to about $310,000, which would only be about a 3 or 4 percent cut.
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