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QUINCY, ILL. -- Scott Stone said, "I'm going to ask for a 10 percent across the board administrative staff reduction and pay effective with the next contract renewal."

That's what Quincy School Board member Stone proposed at Wednesday night's Quincy School Board meeting.

Stone said that's just one part of his 3-pronged approach, which involves increasing the tax levy, to fix the district's budget deficit.

School attorney Dennis Gorman told Stone that his proposal could not be carried out legally as is.

School Board President Bill Daniels gave a presentation on administration pay since he first become a board member in 2001.

He said Quincy Public Schools had 36 administrators in 2001 -- now there are only 26 administrators.

Daniels said the current administration has taken over the responsibilities of 10 people who aren't with the district anymore and are working for $574,000 less than administrators did 10 years ago.

Here's what some of the board members had to say about Stone's proposal.

Tom Dickerson said, "I don't like it when we continually put things out just to see if they'll stick on the wall and they'll land in the paper or they'll land on a videotape from the news."

Steve Krause said, "The amount of our budget that we spend on administrators is low compared to the rest of the state. These are things that could've been brought up in executive session."

Jeff Mays said, "If you don't want to have the discussion about taking these down more. In March, we need to have the discussion we're having whatever the venue now."

Tom Dickerson asked, "Have men and women been paid equally for the same job that's been done in the school district?"

Bud Niekamp answered, "Seems like we got a lot more females being principals at these schools than we do males. I say that's reverse discrimination."

Bill Daniels said, "We are going to have some tough decisions and whether it involves administration, so be it. But I don't think it's fair for us to look at one segment of our employee group and use them as the whipping dogs for what's going on in this district."

Stone ended up withdrawing his motion, but Bud Niekamp who had seconded it would not withdraw.

The motion did not pass.

Stone plans to meet with Gorman to discuss the legal aspects.

Also at Wednesday night's meeting, business manager Bud Martin informed the board that the tax rate for the coming year will drop from $4.03 to $3.99.