At their Feb. 14 meeting, the Northfield Board of Education reviewed the district’s timeline for the budget reduction process. Anticipating the need to reduce the district’s 2011-12 budget by $2,400,000, the district will plan to spend $1,700,000 of its fund balance to offset a portion of the reduction.

In order to balance revenues and expenditures and avoid further reduction of its fund balance, the district will cut the remaining $705,000 from the 2011-12 budget. Approximately 120 staff and community members are working in five budget teams to craft recommendations for a 4% budget cut and two 1% restoration packages, to be restored based on the availability of funding for the 2011-12 school year.

On March 2, the District Budget Review Committee will review the base and restoration packages of each of the five budget areas and place the restoration packages in priority order. This committee will represent a broad range of community stakeholders.

Superintendent Chris Richardson will review the committee’s work and present the district’s recommended priority for reductions and restorations to board members at the March 14 school board meeting, which will be held at 7 p.m. in the high school media center.

At 7 p.m. on March 16, the superintendent will present the recommendations at a public hearing in the high school auditorium and give members of the community an opportunity to provide comment to the board on the proposed budget reductions and restoration priorities. The superintendent and board members will gather feedback, and the recorded hearing will be available on the district Web site and Northfield Community Television (NTV).

The board will review the superintendent’s recommendations and make a decision at the April 11 school board meeting, to be held at 7 p.m. in the high school media center.