Fieldcrest Extra-curriculars cost $252,498 per year
Thursday, October 2, 2003 Posted 10:00 p.m.
According to Fieldcrest Superintendent Dr. Michael Stagliano, extra-curriculars cost the school
district $252,498.48 per year. These figures were released at a special Board of Education meeting
held Thursday night in Minonk. Stagliano told the board that these figures will be broken down by
sports activity for the first meeting of the newly formed Citizens Advisory Committee to be held
on October 9th in the Fieldcrest Library. It will be up to that committee to sort out which activities
will be kept and which ones will be dropped.
The extracurricular costs included both athletic and non athletic. The majority of the cost of funding
these activities lie in personnel including salaries and benefits. The cost breakdown is as follows:
- Coaches and Sponsors - $157,054.48
- Officials - $19,900.00
- Supplies - $11,900.00
- Dues/Fees - $9,500
- Transportation - $54,144.00
- Total - $252,409.48
All salaries(including transportation) with the exception of officials are part of the negotiated
agreement between the Board of Education and the Fieldcrest Education Association.
Stagliano said that revenues and fees generated by each sport will be subtracted from the cost of the
activity to determine the net cost for each activity. Currently, only $40,000 is generated through
fees and gate receipts to offset the $252,498 cost.
According to Dr. Stagliano, cutting extracurriculars will still not be enough to offset the $1,000,000
deficit. He said that the school is investigating potential academic curricular cost savings as well.
Eliminating non-mandated courses such as agriculture, annual staff, advanced calculus, etc. must be considered.
According to Fieldcrest Principal Steve Wallick, one of the problems from eliminating elective courses is that it will cause students to bunch in the other
remaining courses. This puts a strain on class sizes for the remaining courses. Wallick said that the
school may have to consider reducing the number of periods from 8 to 7 and increasing the period length
from 40 minutes to 52 minutes if more courses are eliminated. Study Hall may be eliminated.
Dr. Stagaliano said that the school's principals will be touring the school buildings next Tuesday to
help determine the feasibility of creating attendance centers as a way to reduce costs.
Citizens Advisory Committee
The names of the members appointed to the newly created Citizens Advisory Committee were released at the
board meeting. They are:
- Tim Sanders, Minonk
- Ron "Corky" Marshall, Minonk
- Craig Meyer, Minonk
- Tim Frantz, Toluca
- Heidi Cook, Toluca
- Tom Mariotti, TOluca
- Russell Martin, Wenona
- John Lauf, Wenona
- Garilyn Wells, Faculty
- Paul Stromberg, Faculty
- Dana, outstanding
- Rutland, outstanding
Dr. Stagliano said that efforts to place a member from Dana and Rutland on the committee are still
being made. The committee will have its first meeting on October 9th in the Fieldcrest Library.
Wenona TIF
Superintendent Stagliano said that the school has received a third check from the Wenona TIF district
this week. The check for $15,200 brings to $44,000 the amount that has been paid from the TIF fund this
year. The first two checks were for TIF payments for 1999-2000 and 2000-2001. Minonk resident
Gene Oncken said that it was rather strange that checks for 1999-2000 are all of a sudden being paid. Stagliano
said that he is going to try and determine why the checks are being paid now and not before.
The next Board of Education meeting is on October 16 in Minonk.
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