No recommendation on Colon Schools budget

Faced with trimming $500,000 from a $6 million budget, members of the Colon Community Schools Board of Education expressed their frustrations during a special work session Monday.
The target of their dismay was a state legislature that they said continues to force school districts to do more with less.
Board member Eric Bower said he is frustrated at the state for putting the board in such a difficult position.
Bower noted the state’s per-pupil funding, which is $7,126 per student this year and has, in essence, remained unchanged over the past decade.
No recommendations were made Monday, but the board is expected to make half a million dollars in cuts that could impact staff, administrators and bus service Monday next week.
During the district’s March board meeting, Superintendent Vic Bugni said the administrative restructuring would call for letting go of high school principal Deb Swartz and her elementary counterpart, Mitch Miller. They would be encouraged to apply for the restructured principal’s position and be based at Colon Elementary. The dean of students/athletic director, meanwhile, would be housed at the high school. Bugni would relocate his office from a portable at the rear of the high school to an office space inside the high school building and serve as backup to the dean of students, whose focus would deal with issues related to truancy and discipline.
The 609-student district, which has a 2015 graduating class of 24 students, is projected to lose nearly 30 students over the next two academic years.