Budget amendments approved for Rogers City Area Schools
A revised budget was adopted Monday evening by the Rogers City Area Schools Board of Education. With it came a reduction in expenditures of $70,825. The across-the-board cuts were fairly deep in some areas, not so painful in others, but difficult nonetheless. The amendment was needed because of a change in the state aid formula.
The change was an ever so slight rewording of legislation approved in Lansing last summer which resulted in a shortfall of $167,000 for the district.
IT WAS BACK to the calculators for chief financial officer Don Schaedig and the administration. Budget amendment Number1 was approved in November, $167,000 in the red.
Budget amendment Number 1A Monday would not balance the budget, but stop the bleeding.
?When you take a look at a $5.5 million budget, 80 or 85 percent of that is personnel costs, so to cut a few thousand wasn?t so bad, but when you get into the $100,000 or $200,000, you can?t cut it with papers and pencils, there?s no way,? said board member Keith Gordon, who also serves on the finance committee.
The foundation grant awards schools $6,700 per student per district. The district would have been able to count 738 students but the change in the legislation reduced it by 25 students.
?YOU LOOK at a $5.5 million budget,? said Don Schaedig, chief financial officer. ?Well, $70,000 shouldn?t be that difficult to come up with, but at this point and time, it wasn?t that easy. It really wasn?t.?
For some districts in Michigan, the pinch wasn?t as difficult as it is in Rogers City, and the future is not looking the best on the local level.
The official enrollment in September ended up being below 700 students, 690 to be exact.
?This next year is going to be a very difficult one,? said Scott McLennan, board president.
?We are not anticipating any increase (foundation grant) and it may very well be a cut. So we are trying to batten down the hatches so we can weather the storm.?
SCHAEDIG SAID the budget reduction of $70,000 equated to 1.33 percent of all functions within the budget.
?So if we said that every function had to absorb their fare share of the cuts, it would amount to 1.33 percent,? he said.
The majority of the expenditures, 45 percent, came out of the capital outlay.
?That?s always the easiest area to hit because those funds have not been committed,? said Schaedig.
The next area that took a substantial reduction was teaching supplies, text books and related material. That total was $19,500.
Plant operation and maintenance will have to get by without $20,580.
OTHER REDUCTIONS came from: the office of superintendent, $2,000; buses services, $2,000; transportation services, $7,000; technology services, $5,000; K-4 program, $6,500; 5-6 program, $6,000; athletics-salaries, $1,900.
The athletic salary change was made easy because of the cancellation of the freshman boys? basketball season.
Board member Norm Karbon asked if the principals can get along without some of the materials they were proposing to cut.
?At the high school they had $34,
?WE STILL have a balance…in the order of $14,000 to $15,000. What we did was recommend a $5,000 reduction in that area and pro-rated it across the various departments of the high school. Instead of one department being hit, it?s being absorbed by all of them.?
?It?s not going to affect the education of the kids for this school year,? said Gordon.
?Certainly if we have the chance as the year proceeds we might find that there are some budget areas where we won?t spend funds,? said Schaedig. ?These will be some of the areas we will reinstate.?
by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor<
