Schools

District Considers $51 Million Budget at Tuesday's Board Meeting

Tuesday's school board meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Liberty School

The budget is the big item on the agenda when the Board of Education meets Tuesday night at.

The board will meet at 6 p.m. for a hearing on the 2011-12 school budget.

Up for a vote is a $51,430,713 budget that spends $1,299,800 than it takes in. The district will cover that deficit by using money from the fund balance, which is expected to drop to $1,871,293 by June 30, 2012. That leaves the fund balance at 3.64 percent of expenditures, below the mandated five percent level called for by board policy. The board will also consider a motion change that policy to allow the fund balance to fall below five percent for a short period of time.

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To make these numbers, the district has laid off approximately 18 full-time teachers. Because of seniority rules, approximately 30 teachers have been moved to new positions in the district. Class sizes are expected to increase, particularly at the high school.

The Saline Education Association also opened its contract with the district and gave up about $1.5 million in concessions. The contract expires in 2012.

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Families will also feel some of the financial brunt. “Pay to Play” fees are increasing from $175 to $250.

The difficult budget was created the Republican leadership in Lansing, which reprogrammed money from the school aid fund to help pay for higher education and other general fund programs. State funding accounts for 69 percent of the district’s budget.

The other big factor is teacher benefits. For every dollar spent on salaries, the district is paying out 24.24 cents to the state retirement program. In 2001-02, the district paid 12.17 cents on every salary dollar spent.

The health care costs, through Michigan Education Special Services Association, are also up 10.1 percent. Factored in with the decline in health care costs for those employees with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Plan, health care costs are still up $1.3 million.

The district is also collecting $454,688 less in property taxes, due to declining property values.

Other cuts include the elimination of a security guard at the high school, the elimination of the musical accompanist position, reduction in the paraeducators staff, a hiring freeze in the custodial department, the replacement of the information technology director with lesser paid tech assistant, the reduction of administrative staff, changing the assistant superintendent of administrative services position to a human resources, and changes in busing.

The district originally issued layoff notices to 68 teachers. At the end of May, 28 teachers were called back. At Tuesday’s meeting, 23 more teachers will be recalled. They are Bridget Corie, Megan Degrand, William Elliot, Meredith Franzel, Kristin Girbach, Kathleen Goldhardt, Stephen Hasselbach, Timothy Krohn, Jodi Laurent, Christy McGee, Samuel Musto, Rachel Porter, Amber Powers, Robert Redies, David Reeves, Adam Rodriguez, Beth Russow, Caroline Stout, Melissa Styn, Claudia Whitsitt, Bradley Woehlke, Lisa York and Gregory Williams.


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