Area schools set to cope with state funding cuts By Angela Shultis

Lead News Story: The Citizen-Journal, Boyne City, Michigan, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2003

With state lawmakers handing down per-pupil funding cuts of nearly $200 per student for the current school year, area districts are looking at tightening belts and cutting fat. Unfortunately, pointed out Boyne Falls School superintendent Mark Parsons, Theres no fat in our schools.

Indeed, after a freeze on per-student state foundation grants had districts looking to trim excess expenses in the 2003-04 budget, area schools are struggling to find more wiggle room in already-tight budgets. In East Jordan and Boyne City, the reduction translates to approximately $250,000 per district in lost students funding. According to BoyneCity schools superintendent Jim Cooper, that means pulling from fund equity.

For the past year weve tried to watch spending, tried to build the fund equity, he said. As it stands the school has maintained enough fund equity to survive the loss, and the gradually increasing enrollment helps as well.

Weve added programs in tough economic times, and we said wed tough it out and see what happens, Cooper said. We are in good shape, and Im confident well make it through this.

Likewise, in East Jordan, drawing from fund equity has been pegged as the only way to make up for the loss of a quarter of a million dollars from this years budget. Were going to absorb most of that out of our fund balance this year, and hope for better days in 04-05, said East Jordan school superintendent Chip Hansen. Some cuts will have to be made, Hansen noted, primarily in the form of consumable supplies and materials such as custodial maintenance supplies.

Losing $250,000 mid-year is an impossible number to deal with, but were going to minimize the impact as much as we can, Hansen said. The fund equity, he added, will be used just as its intended; Its there for a rainy day and this is certainly one of those.

For East Jordan, the reduction comes practically on the tail of a budget revision for the 02-03 school year that pulled $180,000 out of the fund equity. With the additional $250,000 coming out, that leaves the balance at about seven percent of the general operating fund. Its substantially lower than wed like it to be, but thats what its there for and thats what it will be used for, he said.

Having the equity to draw from, at this point, is something to be thankful for, Hansen noted, pointing to other districts around the region, like Kalkaska and Pellston, that could be put in the hole by the reduction. Our area schools are doing better than most, he said. We have to be thankful for that. It is, it seems, a time for taking comfort in the fact that no district is alone in facing the axe of state budget trimmers. Everybodys in this thing together, said Boyne Falls superintendent Parsons. It raises a whole lot of questions, including, he noted, the fact that smaller districts like Boyne Falls are seeing the same amounts cut as schools getting over $10,000 per student. In Boyne Falls, as in Boyne City and East Jordan, the student foundation grant, pre-cut, is set at $6,700 per student.

The cuts of $196 per student, for Boyne Falls, means a loss of $64,000, a setback the schoo l cant take lightly. Despite having adopted a deficit budget last spring (balanced, as required by state law, through pulling from fund equity), an increase in enrollment of 13 students this fall gave school administrators hope for the future.

We were excited with our growth, Parsons said. We thought, were going to do alright. Now, with the recently-announced cuts, were right back into it. For the time being the school, like all others, will make small reductions, as in the supply budget, and keep an eye on the future.

The reality is were going to take a hit this year, its going to impact us and create even more challenging decisions for next year, Parsons said. What we have to do is the best we can, and hopefully minimize as much as possible the impact on our students.