TR School Board discusses budget trends

Budget trends over the last five years were highlighted by Superintendent Roger Rathburn during the Three Rivers Community Schools Board of Education meeting Monday evening (October 12th).

Rathburn’s report reveals the impact of Michigan’s sagging economy on the local school district and outlines the wide variety of spending cuts that have been made in response to the situation.

The document provides a “comparison of the audited 2005-2006 Budget and the adopted 2009-2010 Budget for the purpose of illustrating cuts which have already been implemented to address the challenge of declining revenues over the last 4 years.”

The report identifies spending reductions in a variety of areas – 17.5 percent in administration, 14 percent in central office secretaries, 20 percent in building secretaries, 6 percent in teachers, 17 percent in paraprofessionals, and 13 percent in maintenance and grounds – for a total of $1,864,000. It also lists many other cuts in line items totaling over a million dollars ($1,041,518).

The history of budget cutting is sobering, but even more so are the prospects for further cuts in the foreseeable future, trimming that becomes increasingly difficult.

The K-12 spending bill passed by the Michigan Legislature last week included a $165 per student cut in state aid and Rathburn said the anticipation is that next year’s state budget will bring a state aid cut of $400 to $600 per student, which would mean a loss of $1.2 million to $1.6 million in revenue for the Three Rivers school district.

On a somewhat brighter note, Rathburn said work on the audit for the 2008-2009 year is being finished now and it looks like the district will not end up with a deficit for the period, despite beginning the year with a projected shortfall in excess of a million dollars. He said, “We made cuts during the year and I think we were fiscally responsible.”

Regarding the financial challenges, Rathburn said, “It’s going to get harder and harder, but I believe that we can do it. And I can tell you that we are positioned better than most districts. I would put us in the top ten percent.”

Rathburn said, “They’re saying as many as 100 schools will be bankrupt by the end of this year with this proration cut.”

Rathburn said, “I think consolidation is on the way and we know that, we recognize that, and we’re working on that as a county.” He noted the recent consolidation of technology staff in the county and said, “I think we’ll be looking at business offices. We’ll be looking at superintendents. The school systems just can’t exist under the old model. There are not enough revenues to sustain that model and I think most districts are doing their best to keep the impact away from the classroom.”