By Adam Allington, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The St. Louis Board of Education voted down a $6.9 million dollar supplemental budget package late Tuesday night.
The money would have been in addition to the budget the board is currently operating under and comes in the wake of a state commission which reported the school system sliding dangerously close to bankruptcy.
Some discussion centered on selling property or shutting down facilities as the only way to free up money.
Superintendent Diana Bourisaw didn't reject the idea, but didn't embrace it either: "We have a facilities committee that is prepared, but we need to discuss that based on the needs of the districts and incur other discussions such as demographic trends.
As soon those things are addressed then that determination will be made as to whether we need to consolidate facilities or leave them as they are."
Acting district CFO Enos Moss claims the supplemental funds are needed to meet state compliance and pay salary adjustments. He also says the St. Louis school district is financially solvent and the $6.9 million would have been offset by other reductions.
Some school board members were surprised to even hear about the revised budget. Board member Ronald Jackson says that continually revising the budget simply puts off hard cost cutting decisions that need to be made.
"We're gonna have to make some serious serious, hard, unpopular, unpleasant decisions about 07/08," Jackson said, "irrespective of what happens in o6/07 because that's when the rubber is gonna hit the road."
The revised budget failed to pass in 3-3 tie. Absent from the meeting was the potential swing vote in board member Flint Fowler.