BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org

CHERRYVALE — Grim faces were prevalent around the USD 447 Board of Education meeting table Monday after board members discussed budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year.

Reductions in state support for public schools is prompting the school board to wield a budget axe, and it’s a position that doesn’t please board members and Superintendent Randy Wagoner.

“Once you get to this point, there are options for us to consider, but none of them are happy options,” said Wagoner.

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BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org

INDEPENDENCE — A decision by the Montgomery County Commission in 2008 to grant pay increases to county employees — without money being provided in the 2009 budget to fund those pay hikes — is now being felt in the county courthouse.
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BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

INDEPENDENCE — County commissioners received jolting news Monday as they held their first budget preparation meeting for Montgomery County’s 2010 spending plan.
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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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