Sup't Graden on Schools Budget: "We're To The End Of The Road"

The Saline Area Schools Board of Education passed a $51,430,713 budget at Tuesday’s meeting.

The district balanced its budget by laying off 18 teachers, getting $1.5 million in concessions for the final year of the Saline Education Association contract, and by using $1.3 million from the fund balance.

The budget was passed by a 5-1 vote, with trustees Chuck Lesch, David Medley, David Friese, Amy Cattel and Craig Hoeft voting yes. Lisa Slawson voted against the budget. Todd Carter was absent.

Other cuts include the elimination of a security guard at the high school, the elimination of the musical accompanist position, reduction in the paraeducator 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 position, and changes in busing. Families will also feel some of the financial brunt. “Pay-to-Play” fees are increasing from $175 to $250.

Superintendent Scot Graden called it the most difficult budget he had seen and said it was the culmination of three years of shifting the district’s staff model to address the district’s structural deficit. Graden agreed with outgoing assistant superintendent Tom Wall, who pointed out the structural deficit still exists and with the fund balance expected to fall to $1.8 million by next June, the district is running out of options.

“It cannot continue. We are to a point now where it must be addressed fundamentally and structurally in order for us to provide the stability for our students, staff and community. Last year, the state retirement incentive helped preserve jobs. We're not in that position this year. The state isn't coming through with something like that and we will have people who are laid off into the summer,” Graden said. “That's not something that I think the board takes lightly. I hope that's something our staff understands. None of us take this lightly. We're to the end of the road in many senses.”

Slawson echoed Graden’s comments about the difficulty of the budget, saying it was the hardest she’d seen in her tenure on the board. She said she could not support drawing the fund balance down as far as this budget required.

“This budget reduces the fund balance to dangerously low level and if it used for anything, it should be to put teachers back in classrooms,” Slawson said.

To pass the budget, the board needed to change a policy that required the district to carry a fund balance of at least five percent of expenditures. The new policy allows the budget to be drawn down to less than five percent, but it requires the board to develop a plan to replenish the balance within a year. That means the district added $1.3 million to next year’s deficit, if nothing else changes.

Where will the board get the money?

In a district where 85 percent of the cost is salary and benefits, Slawson pointed to staff.

“It’s going to require concessions. Painful concessions,” said Slawson.

The contract with the SEA expires in June of 2012.

The difficult budget was created by many factors. The Republican leadership in Lansing 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. More than $1 million in federal stimulus money has dried up. 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.