TRAVERSE CITY -- To save money, Traverse City's public schools could look first to improve energy efficiency and end meal service at meetings, a committee studying the district's budget recommended.
The 19-member committee spent months generating a list of suggested budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year.
No changes were made to the group's priority list at its final meeting Monday. The recommendation will be sent to the school board for discussion next week.
Action won't be taken until after incoming board members Julie Puckett and Kelly Hall are seated in January.
Participants worked to address an expected deficit for next year in the range of $6 million to $11 million. Administrators have said it could be closer to $8 million.
The district's budget is about $90 million this year. The committee has been planning for cuts that span $2 million to $12 million.
"We have to take this seriously," committee co-chairwoman and school board member Megan Crandall said.
She said the board might not approve it exactly as submitted, but she anticipates members will consider the recommended priorities.
The committee began meeting in August, but the process has not been easy. Discussions became heated at times when some members had a vested interest in a topic, such as restructuring central administration.
Angela Sides, the district's early childhood and special education director, and Montessori Director Angela Camp submitted letters to accompany the recommendation.
"When you eliminate administrators, the work gets spread to those who already had full time jobs. When you increase class size ... the classroom is impacted," Sides wrote, adding that cuts shouldn't ask "one person or one group to bear more reductions than are right or fair compared to others."
Some participants voiced concerns that they didn't have enough information to proceed, since some suggestions were included without detailed savings estimates.
Teacher and committee member Pam Forton on Monday briefly presented a draft of the list that included "internal notes" with details she said never were presented at meetings.
She said a committee member e-mailed it Monday afternoon, but would not reveal the source.
"We keep being told there's no more information to get," Forton said. "I don't think we did our job very well. We did it making the best guess. I hope that will be good enough."
