The Audubon School District’s Board of Education, Monday night, approved savings of nearly $140,000 by making budget reductions for Fiscal Year 2017. Superintendent Brett Gibbs told KJAN News nearly $96,000 in those reductions are due to the Superintendent Sharing arrangement with Coon Rapids-Bayard. The reductions also include reducing one-half a Vocal Music position, and, a 9^th grade Volleyball position won’t be filled. Gibbs said there are a number of factors that led to the cuts.

Declining enrollment and lack of State Supplemental Aid he says, leaves schools little choice to make cuts. “We’ve been cutting here for a long time through attrition and early retirements, but this year we’ve got to the point where we actually had to reach out and go a little deeper then that.”

In other business, the Audubon Board approved a letter of resignation from first-year High School English Teacher Kourtney Self, who has accepted a position in Avoca, where she and her husband lives and her husband teaches. The District will begin advertising to fill her position, soon. The Audubon School Board also approved an LED lighting project for the first floor of the 5-through 12 building.

MidAmerican Energy is providing a rebate of nearly half the cost to replacement fluorescent lights. The project will be paid for out of PPEL/SAVE funds, not the General Fund. He said it should also allow the district to save some energy dollars, going forward. And, they approved end-of-season softball field improvements.

A crew with the Iowa Cubs will come in after the season concludes, and re-do the entire softball infield. And, a bid from Devore Fencing was approved. They’ll remove the old fence and install a new fence around the softball field. Gibbs said the new softball field lights are up, but not connected to a power source. The old poles will be coming down soon, and the project is expected to be completed no later than this fall.