CEDAR LAKE -- The Hanover Community School Corp. board voted Tuesday to eliminate six elementary school teaching positions, a middle school counselor and seven kindergarten aides at Lincoln Elementary School.
In December, Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered schools across the state to cut $300 million due to declining sales tax revenues. Hanover's portion of that cut is $500,000.
Cutting the teaching positions and three teacher retirements will save the district $199,524; these cuts are effective at the end of the school year. The aides would be laid off immediately, and that would save the district $32,827.
School Board President Dale Poston said the teaching positions might still be saved if the teachers union votes to trim its benefit package.
Superintendent Carol Kaiser outlined the series of cuts that the district has made so far, including reducing benefits for administrators and janitors and eliminating school board members' meeting pay. The district still has to make $133,375 in cuts to get under the $500,000 threshold.
Kaiser said the district's 2011 budget will have to reflect the same $500,000 in cuts.
Kaiser and other administrators have been meeting informally with teachers union officials since January. They are now meeting three times a week, but they haven't worked out any cuts as of yet. Any cuts in salary or benefits would require a vote from the teachers union.