By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Shouts and protests provided an angry backdrop to Tuesday night's St. Louis school board meeting.
The board met to review four options for cutting a $23 million budget gap for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
The options include reducing employees through attrition, laying off staff, cutting salaries and benefits, or eliminating non-core programs.
Teacher Richard Bates angrily denounced the district's salary cut proposal.
"I'm not giving up no money," he said. "And if you're not willing to first go into the salaries of those people making all the money, that's the first place you should be taking money. Not from us who work with those kids everyday. We're not going to stand for it."
District consultant Sajan George outlined the options.
"If you took an 8% salary reduction across the board, you'd save $14.8 million," he said.
"The positive about [that] option is that nobody loses a job. The downside is that it absolutely kills morale."
Board member Rochell Moore, against whom two district officials filed a temporary restraining order, was not at the meeting.
The board will take action on the budget in April.
It will also hold another meeting tonight at 7:00 at Vashon High School to present the same information.