Oxford Schools Assistant Superintendent Ron Franey is not certain yet how he’s going to balance this year’s budget with $784,000 in student foundation grant cuts looming on the horizon.
“We haven’t exactly gone into this yet, but we’ve begun looking at the situation,” said Franey. “I’m not going to tell you though that we can effectively cut $800,000 this year.”
School districts around the state received notice from Governor Jennifer Granholm’s office that $196 per student in state funding could be cut by Dec. 5, and would affect the Dec. 20 state-aid payments. Franey said the announcement came as a surprise.
“We were surprised in that when we originally did the budget, the governor said that education was a top priority and that she would maintain the per pupil funding,” he stated. “However, we started to hear rumblings soon after that this would change.”
And change the news has. When Oxford officials learned that revenues for the state level were not as high as expected, they knew that education would be effected.
“Right away we thought there might be some billbacks,” explained Franey, “but nothing of this level. Did we ever think it would be $200 per student, no, never.”
So how will this affect a school district that has already cut millions from the budget over the past few years?
Not well said Franey, “We’re looking to see if we can do something for the second semester, and at the same time we’re trying to look at next year’s budget to prepare right away for that.”
To help the situation at the state level, Oxford officials have heard several different suggestions for cuts ranging from removing the sixth grade laptop program, where every sixth grader in the state will receive a laptop, to making the cuts in the “at-risk” student funding instead, which would impact inner-city school districts such as Detroit harder than the others, to even placing a “stall” on the income tax rollback.
On the local level, Franey said the district will have to consider cuts in non-contract staff; however, he admitted there’s no way to get the entire amount with this method.
“We have staff at that level that is mandatory because of special needs students and such,” he explained.
When asked about the effects of teacher and administrator raises included in the recently approved union contracts, Franey said that those increases were already figured into the budget.
He explained that when putting together the 2003-2004 budget, he included an increase in cost for health insurance. However, the teachers and administrators agreed in their contracts to go with a cheaper insurance in order to have raises over the next three years. In the end, the increase he budgeted for health insurance simply carried over to cover the increase in salaries instead.
“The increase was already planned for through the insurance,” said Franey. “Basically they have been given and then offset for a break-even amount.”
To cover the possible $800,000 in cutbacks, Oxford officials may have to dip into the district’s $3.8 million fund balance, which is between 11 and 12 percent of the year’s overall budget.
“This is one of the main reasons we have that money there,” said Franey. “I have about two months where I have to keep this district funded before the state funding comes in, and with the cutbacks, this is exactly what that money is for.”
Schools districts will hear the final numbers from the governor’s office early in December.
Franey confirmed that whatever the decision, the effects will be seen in the Dec. 20 payments. He expects to have the budget revisions prepared for the Board of Education’s first regular meeting in January.