Grosse Pointe School Board Approves $4.6M In Budget Cuts

GROSSE POINTE, MI — The Grosse Pointe School Board narrowly approved a $4.6 million budget cut, a move that will include layoffs of teachers and other positions in the district.

The board voted 4-3 in favor of implementing the cuts during an hour-longs meeting inside the Brownell Multipurpose Room Tuesday night, bringing the 2023-24 annual budget to $103 million. A decision on the budget was needed before July 1, which is when the new fiscal year starts.

Board President Ahmed Ismail, Treasurer Sean Cotton, Vice President Lisa Papas and Secretary Virginia ‘Ginny’ Jeup voted yes, while trustees, David Brumbaugh, Valarie St. John and Colleen Worden voted no.

Although it was unclear Tuesday night how many teaching positions would be cut from the district, a plan presented by the board at an earlier meeting called for eliminating 15 teaching positions, halting Spanish instruction in grades three and four and cutting two communications jobs.

The deeply divided board debated for hours Tuesday night on how and where to implement the budget cuts.

St. John worried the board has lacked justification and has not been transparent enough with the community about the budget cuts, something she fears could hamper the district and the board's trust.

"I think if there's a justification, if this has really been thought through and the trustees who initiated some of these budget cuts really thought about it and feel this is the best use of our money, and this is what we need to do, and we explain it in a public way, I think we'll have a lot more community trust and community buy-in for these budget cuts," St. John said.

Cotton said he supports the budget, particularly cuts to the central administration, because it will help stabilize the district's finances.

"It's important to note the recurring costs that are cut out of the budget to help stabilize the finances of this district," Cotton said. "We are just treading water with these budget cuts. We need these cuts across the district."

At its June 12 meeting, the board did unanimously accept a donation from the Stem Foundation of $600,000, which will be used to upgrade a scoreboard at South High School, refresh instruments across the district and upgrade a playground at Mason Elementary School.

Tuesday's vote comes after board members debated multiple plans last month to cut between $3 million and $5 million from the budget for next year. That meeting lasted more than nine hours and drew pushback from the community. Members hoped to keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible.

The plan to rollback part of the budget comes as the district deals with a decade-long enrollment decline. In 2010, the district had 8,390 students, but that number fell to 6,475 students by 2022. The district has also rejected opening its schools up to non-district students as a way to boost enrollment.