The superintendent will make another go at getting a budget passed for the already commenced fiscal year as the LPSB is slated to meet tonight on the eve of the state's budget adoption deadline.
The superintendent will make another go at getting a budget passed for the already commenced fiscal year as the LPSB is slated to meet tonight [Monday] on the eve of the state's budget adoption deadline.
Although it wouldn't be too much of a surprise if the board denies the budget presented tonight by Superintendent Pat Cooper. If so, that would raise the tally on the number of budget proposal denied by the board to somewhere bordering on the 20s, as Cooper has come back again and again with budget after budget attempting to balance the school system's $23.5 million deficit in various ways.
The stalemate has gone on for months, and ultimately centers on Cooper's refusal to gut the system's most at-risk schools of funding. Yet, accomplishing that feat has required Cooper to plug the deficit either using money from the system's more than $60 million reserve fund or the excess revenues from a sales tax passed for teacher salaries. Neither option has passed muster, despite repeated attempts from Cooper to convince board members otherwise.
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