Superintendent briefs board on budget uncertainty, task force outreach and safety training

Laurie Burgos, the Shorewood School District superintendent, told the board on Feb. 10 that shifting state budget projections for special education could lower the district’s reimbursement in year one and reduce revenue by roughly $115,000 compared with earlier expectations.

Burgos said the biennial budget initially used 42% reimbursement as a planning assumption; later projections put that level at about 38.5 percent, which "would reduce the amount that we received by $115,000." She told trustees the district will continue to monitor legislative conversations and that she will send an advocacy letter supporting higher special-education funding.

The superintendent announced a community budget input session on Monday, March 9, and a staff budget input session on Feb. 17. She said task force members have reviewed four school-configuration scenarios and that the district will return to the board with a revised scenario based on task-force feedback. Burgos also said she has begun meeting with students across grade levels to gather direct input and committed to providing trustees a concise summary of main takeaways from those meetings.

Burgos updated the board on safety work: two staff members, Sam Bowers (director of buildings and grounds) and Sarah Widener (dean at the intermediate school), participated in Standard Response Protocol training and will present updated training to 7–12 staff on Feb. 27, with follow-ups at Atwater and Lake Bluff scheduled for early March. She said the district plans additional student response training before the end of the school year.

Board members thanked Burgos for gathering student input and asked that key findings be summarized for trustees and the public. Burgos said she would invite students to a future task-force meeting to provide direct testimony to the task force and board.