The new budget also means hits to programs such as gifted, preschool, library, and virtual education. The gifted program, at the elementary level, will have three fewer teachers. The staff left will offer support to the regular classroom teacher to offer differentiation to students. The gifted teachers will provide direct service only to students in grades 4-5 identified as gifted in math or cognitively gifted. The state requires districts to identify students as gifted, but does not require, or fund, schools to provide services.

The preschool program will need a tuition increase in order for the district to offer just a partial program.

For libraries, only one person will oversee the library system for grades K-12. The district is looking to lower its per pupil spending. The current cost is $15,900 per student. With the reductions in place, the amount will drop to $13,200. That is still $2,700 higher than the state average.

The virtual education program will change from a system that welcomes students to a building with a teacher overseeing their work, to a program that requires students to do almost all of their work online, but at home. They will report to school just one day a week and get teacher support online 24/7.

The board meeting is at 7:30 p.m. at the Matthews Auditorium at Princeton High School. This is a change in the normal board meeting location to accommodate the expected large crowd.

For the rest of the article, go to Princeton school board to eliminate 104 jobs