The District Sustainability Committee is only offering a set of possibilities in tonight's report. It contains no absolute decisions, said superintendent of schools Brian Pepper.
"There may be a belief that people are going to find out tomorrow absolutely what is going to happen," Pepper said. "The fact is, the District Sustainability Committee is bringing forward a report that includes a series of recommendations that the board will have to deliberate on over a number of months. The report explains the situation in the school district, and the report makes a number of recommendations. The board will have to make the decisions, and that process is a lengthy one that will span several months and allow for considerable input from the public. Nothing has been decided."
Pepper said the closure of a single school would provide a cost reduction of anywhere between $100,000 and $500,000, depending on the location but he said there are so many factors involved that the calculations have to go far deeper than just subtracting this school or that school.
He also stressed that there is no way to simply subtract jobs and deduct that payroll cost from the bottom line.
"I cant answer that (how many jobs would be eliminated), because there are so many factors involved. There could be none to very few; there could be many. I'm not being coy, and you will understand that when you see the report - that this is an incredibly complex situation. It is incredibly complex. You will not hear a number, because it is impossible to figure out with any degree of certainty."
That said, there are some cost reduction targets that will be disclosed in the report. Pepper said the accounting practices and treasury personnel in School District 57 were excellent at managing SD57 budgets so once decisions were made, Pepper predicted the books would once again be back in balanced order.
