Webberville Community Schools

The slow recovery in the state of Michigan has had a profound negative impact on school funding over the last three school years. For

three consecutive years there have been no funding increases to the K – 12 schools in Michigan. In fact there has only been reductions

due to mid-year reductions in the foundation grants and due to increase expenditures that have been passed on to the K – 12 schools.

You probably have heard either on the news or have read in the newspapers how many school districts have had to make significant

cuts in staffing, transportation, fine arts programs and athletic programs to help balance their budgets as a result of three years of

revenue cuts. This year our political leaders have reported in the media that schools are receiving a $74.00 per student increase this

year. This is actually not true. Last year in December of 2003 we received a $74.00 reduction in our foundation grant. What our

legislators did was to restore $74.00 per student for this year which still puts us below our funding level of three-years ago.

This year in addition to the categorical funding cuts we have already received, we are anticipating another cut in the foundation grant

due to the recent announcement by Governor Granholm that the state budget is under funded by $500,000,000. I feel it is important

that parents and the community are aware of how schools are doing financially, and how Webberville is striving to meet the

financial challenges we are facing.

I would like to explain what we have done the last 12 months to absorb the increased cost of educating students while at the same time receiving less funding from the state. Secondly, I would like to discuss what we are doing this year to reduce spending. And third, what will it take for Webberville Community Schools to weather the current financial crisis and to grow for the future.

In the spring of 2003 the school board approved a budget for the 2003 – 2004 based on a projected student enrollment of 630 students, a $6,700 foundation grant from the state, and $133,000 more in special education funding then we actually received. We paid $50,000 more in special education funding then was budgeted and we received a $74 reduction in our state grant resulting in $48,000 less revenue. We had a reduction in all of our categorical funding. The enrollment projection was off by 16 students which resulted in $85,760 less revenue. However, the total enrollment decline was 39 students which was an overall reduction of $209,040. As a result, the district had approximately $336,200 less in revenue then was originally planned last year. Couple the reduction in revenue with a 3% increase in employee salaries, 15% increase in health care benefits and other revenue reductions from both the state and federal government; and we were over $600,000 in deficit spending last year. We started the year with a $717,000 fund balance, but with the deficit spending, we were faced with the difficult decision to make cuts last year. We reorganized our administration responsibilities, we did not fill vacated teaching positions, we reduced the support staff, and we put a freeze on spending. As a result, we reduced our deficit spending by over 40%. We ended up with a fund balance last year of $371,006.00.which represents a 7.9% fund balance. Our goal is to maintain a 10% fund balance as required by Board policy.

Last year I shared with the school board, staff and community members that we were “over staffed – under serving.” What this meant was we had too many teachers in certain areas but lacking teachers in other areas. Therefore, our students were going without certain opportunities in their education. This year we have reduced our overall teaching staff by 4.5 teachers. However, we are offering our students more opportunities. For example in the elementary school we started a Spanish program, computer program, added a fifth and sixth grade choir program, and we added fifth grade band. In the middle school we added seventh and eight grade choir, computer classes and expanded our art and PE programs. In the high school we added AP Physics, Strength & Conditioning classes, Men’s and Women’s chorus, Jazz Band, Multimedia/Graphic Arts, AutoCAD, and Honor’s Chemistry. These programs and classes were added while making cuts as we realigned our staff to be able to offer more opportunities to students. Secondly, we dropped the “pay for play.” which required families to pay for their children to participate in athletics. Even though this costs us approximately $11,000 in revenue, the revenue lost was not worth the price we were paying which was students not participating in athletics. This fall our participation in sports went-up significantly. We are the only district in the area not charging its student-athletes to participate in sports.

We made many other cuts this year in addition to the reduction of 4.5 teachers. We had to reduce 40 hours per week in paraprofessional staff. We eliminated the Capital Area Career Center transportation due to so few students using it in relation to the cost of providing transportation. We changed our school calendar from 180 student days to 167 days by eliminating half days and professional development during school hours. The total savings to the district is approximately $300,000. We are still looking at other possibilities to get our budget balanced while achieving a year ending 10% fund balance for June 2005.

Webberville Community Schools is not alone as every school system is looking for ways to save money and increase revenue. The only way a school district can truly increase their funding under proposal A is to have an increasing enrollment. For eleven consecutive years Webberville Community Schools has had a declining enrollment. This has resulted in over 250 students less today then we had 12 years ago. However, this year we saw an increase in enrollment as we grew by 16.35 students. This trend needs to continue in order for our school district to continue on its path of striving for excellence for our students and community members. We have a strategic plan in place that is helping us to focus on those things that are essential to our community’s future success. The community supported us on a very important bond issue that is allowing us to build an athletic/recreation center for the students and community members. The 1 mill sinking fund also passed which allows us to start making some of the badly needed repairs to our facilities. The school is making a lot of progress in improving its academic programs and the offering of new curriculum that supports vocational education, higher education, and technical education. We have plans for improving opportunities in our co-curricular activities such as the fine arts and athletics

Looking toward the future, we need to have a two track improvement process in place if the community and school district is to prosper. On the one side of the track we need new housing developments to stop the erosion of the community and allow for the rejuvenation of the community and school district. Currently, we lack affordable housing for young families with school age children. On the other track the school district needs to continue making improvements as well. We need to continue improving our curriculum offerings, continue upgrading our facilities, and we need to continue providing more opportunities in the fine arts and athletics. If we provide more housing while at the same time continue to improve our school system we will see our community flourish and our schools do well as more families move to Webberville. Secondly we will be able to provide more opportunities for students and community members alike. From the community prospective the three main reasons for how a business chooses to locate in a particular community is available housing, quality of schools and the amenities the community has to offer. Therefore, if we want to grow our tax base we need to increase housing, continue to improve our school system, and increase the amenities the school and community offers.

In conclusion though we are faced with financial difficulties as a community and school district, we will continue to look for ways to improve our services to our students. We are fortunate as a school district because we know we can stand firmly on the support of our parents, students, staff, Webberville community members, and community leaders as we move forward together in uncertain times, but with a common vision.