Beecher School Board Had Good News Regarding Budget

By Jeff Vorva

On a night in which softball players and track stars were honored for state success, Beecher School District 200-U Superintendent Jack Gaham clarified the role of a new sports booster club.

At the June 12 board meeting, Gaham said the booster club formed, and he wanted to let the public know its role as an outside organization helping out the athletic programs.

“The community is having a push where they would like to see a booster club that is outside the realm of the school district,” he said. “The booster club is not 200-U affiliated, though they will be using the funds to help 200-U sports.”

He said the group is welcome to run events, such as silent auctions and use 200-U employees even if the events are not sponsored by the district.

He said donations will go through the proper channels.

“Once they have money to donate, they will obviously work with the district’s lawyers to make sure everything is copasetic,” he said. 

“Once they start donating the money, we want to make sure we are following all Title IX requirements (equality between boys and girls sports). They can’t specifically say ‘this is for boys basketball.’ That’s illegal. But they can say ‘here’s x amount of money to be used for the basketball program,’ and we’ll make sure that money is dispersed correctly.”

Budget amendments

Gaham had some good news amending the budget.

The projected revenue was $15.83 million, and it ended up being $17.16 million. The projected expenditures were $21.1 million, and that went down to $20.97 million.

All told, the deficit went from $5.2 million to $3.8 million.

He said some of the damages to the high school building because of freezing and stormy weather and insurance had a bearing on some of the changes. But spending money more wisely was a key.

“We started to cut back on some of the spending,” he said. “In the last year, we’ve done a lot better job trying to cut back that $21 million-budget.”

Coming and going

The board acknowledged the resignation of high school bowling coach Monica Schwarzentraub, junior high boys basketball coach Steven Nelson, junior high cross country coach Madison Janssen, junior high speech team coach Mary Baxter, junior high speech team assistant coach Sue Wente, junior high English teacher Katie Kocinski, junior high ESL teacher Gabrielle Snyder, and high school math teacher Kristin Payne.

The board approved the employment of high school art/academic art/support teacher Brooke Balle, junior high aide Beth Hayhurst, high school volleyball assistant coach Jaida Schrieder, junior high cross country coach Nicholas Kapchinske, junior high girls basketball coach Jason Horlacher, junior high cheerleading coach Alexis Schultz, and elementary school teacher Julia Galgan.

The board accepted the retirement of high school librarian Vicki Ploense.

Staying put

The board approved the contract of athletic director Brandon DuBois and approved an agreement with .5 teacher, .5 elementary school librarian Lindsay Berger.