Changes planned to save money

By MARY SMITH

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

MINERAL RIDGE — The Weathersfield school board took action Wednesday on a cost-cutting measure in the middle school cafeteria.

Superintendent Michael Hanshaw explained that the district is starting to look for ways to save money.

He said that next year, the district will no longer cook hot meals at the middle school cafeteria but will cook them at the high school and have them taken to the middle school.

Students will not miss out on hot lunches, he emphasized.

As part of that cost-cutting move, the board plans to start replacing full-time retirees with part-timers when it can, the superintendent said, and did so Wednesday by transferring Lori Goodman from the middle school cafeteria to the high school cafeteria, effective this month.

Also approved was the hiring of Deana Van Horn as a short-hour (five hours) cook at the middle school at $13.08 an hour, effective Feb. 25. Hanshaw noted a full-time cook had retired at the end of last year and the short-hour cook will replace her.

Ralph Fauvie, chairman of the Weathersfield schools levy committee, urged local voters to approve again the renewal of a 5.2-mill emergency operating levy March 4

The levy was first approved in November 2004 at 5.5 mills and generates $538,168 a year. The upcoming vote would be its second renewal.

School officials say the dollars are being used for operations, as the district anticipates a complete loss of personal tangible property taxes from local businesses over a 10-year period. The state is temporarily supplementing payments to districts for the tax, but that will end in 10 years.

The district projects a $1 million deficit sometime in the next two years.