A community meeting was held Monday night in Altamont on the high school gym to update the public about the financial issues facing the Altamont Unit 10 School District. The meeting also gave those in attendance a better understanding of the issues at the state level that have led to these time of financial difficulty.
Altamont Superintendent Jeff Fritchtnitch spoke at the meeting about how funding from the state has decreased in recent years. Six years ago the Altamont district was 100% fully funded, but that number is now down to 82%. The District’s Board of Education has worked to compensate for the lack of state funding, having to balance budget cuts while still maintaining a quality education for the students in the district. The Altamont school district has used more than $1.5 million in district reserves to make up for the state’s lack of funding.
As he did prior to the meeting in a letter to the parents in Altamont, Superintendent Fritchtnitch again called on people in the district to contact the state’s legislators asking for the passage of a K-12 funding plan.