OAK PARK : Schools to Consider Possible Budget Cuts

Oak Park High School’s class of 1994 may have to forgo a graduation ceremony or charge parents to attend because of budget cuts, a school official said Monday.

The graduation ceremony is one of many cuts proposed by the five schools of the Oak Park Unified School District to help make up an expected $217,000 budget shortfall. The schools also have proposed reducing or eliminating such items as textbooks, library books and magazine subscriptions, classroom supplies, photocopies, teacher conferences, intramural sports and team uniforms.

The district board will get its first look at the proposed $9.1-million budget tonight but is not expected to take action.

Board member Jim Kalember said the list of cutbacks proposed by the schools may be more dramatic than realistic. “The list you saw is an absolute drop-dead, worst-case, scare-the-heck-out-of-everybody kind of thing,” Kalember told a reporter Monday. The cutbacks would come from the schools’ discretionary funds, which make up a little more than 1% of the district’s total budget.

The district is facing financial pressure because it is opening a third elementary school, Red Oak, next fall. Enrollment is expected to be about 220 students, which is short of the number required to make the school self-sustaining from state revenues. But the district’s rapid growth is expected to make the school self-supporting within a few years, officials have said.