On Tuesday Feb. 3, Rick Doll and members of the school board made a guest appearance at Lawrence High for the School Site Council meeting. The meeting was arranged to discuss possible solutions to educational budget cuts that will affect Lawrence.

• Rick Doll proposes that USD 497 reconfigure the schools in two years instead of one because the city can not afford it at this time.  
• If class sizes are raised by 1 student across the districtm, it would save $1 million. This would involve teachers losing their jobs.
• Rick Doll is in favor of combination classes (ie: third and fourth graders taught in the same classroom), however, this policy is not favored by many school board members including president Scott Morgan.
•  Doll encourages worried parents to email legislators and ask them to raise taxes rather than cut their children’s programs. Legislators will state their final budget plan in April, likely after cuts have already been made at the local level.
• Doll asks parents to stop sending school board members lists of things that cannot be cut; he wants parents to send ideas of what can be cut or state the solutions of which they are most in favor.