I am concerned about reading a portion of the Lake Orion School District’s Superintendent Marion Ginopolis’ comments wherein she stated at the end of Jim Newell’s article of Wed., Sept. 7, 2016, “that the building and site sinking fund would also allow the district to build up its fund balance. The current fund balance is about 7.5 percent, but the district, and the district’s auditors, recommend keeping a fund balance of 10 percent of the annual operating budget.”
Supt. Ginopolis stated that some of the Sinking Funds could be used to build up the school district’s fund balance. That very much sounded to me as a siphoning off of some of the 10 year Sinking Funds. The people who voted thought that they were told that the funds were only to be used for site maintenance upgrades and repairs.
If some of the recently voted upon Sinking Funds are siphoned off and diverted to the Lake Orion School District’s annual operating budget fund then will those diverted Sinking Funds be used for salaries and other purposes that the people did not intend when they voted?
The Lake Orion School’s promotional document clearly spelled out that in the section headed Sinking Fund vs Bond and I quote, “Funds generated from the sinking fund cannot be used for district salaries, benefits, buses, operating expenses, routine maintenance and supplies, loose equipment or furnishings.”
Mary MacMaster
Orion Township resident