Grosse Pointe School Board Approves Budget Calling for Cuts

Not one  school board member left Monday's meeting in high spirits following the passage of a 2011/2012 fiscal year budget calling for employee cuts and curricular changes and eliminations.

The passage wasn't necessarily a sign of their agreement but more of a necessity to meet the deadline, which is Thursday. Many of the board members expressed that they want further discussion to happen in relation to the proposed cuts with a focus of what can be saved. 

Several district officials prepared three versions of the $102 million budget for the board's consideration. The first version called for the use of $4.3 million from the fund balance to fill the gap in the budget. The second version included about $1 million in cuts of support staff and the last version included about $1.2 million in cuts of teachers. 

The two proposed versions involving cuts were intended to give the board options to reduce the amount of the fund balance necessary to bridge the gap in reaching a balanced budget. In a 5:1 vote, the board passed the budget tying both proposed cut versions to it. 

Board member Judy Gafa was the sole naysayer. 

Vice President of the board Joan Dindoffer said she had reservations about passing a budget that would use a significant portion of the district's fund equity. She also questioned whether it would be irresponsible to dip that deeply into the funds that the district is unlikely to be able to build back up again.

Board member Tom Jakubiec said while he's always in favor of improving the services to the students he believes there are significant cuts that could be made to meet the district's financial woes. 

Board Treasurer Brendan Walsh, who presented a brief Power Point presentation on the history of the budget and current state of declining funding, said the gap is too large to fill by simply making cuts. He voted to support the passage of the budget tying both proposed cut versions to it as a matter of reaching the Thursday deadline, not because he believes the cuts were the best option. 

Walsh also reminded the board of the contract reached last year with the teachers that ensures the fund equity balance is maintained at 10 percent of the total budget. Under their contract, if the fund equity balance dips below the 10 percent, the teachers agreed to make up the difference through cuts to their own salary. 

Board President John Steininger noted the state of affairs in several other districts saying how he doesn't want Grosse Pointe to be in the same situation. He also said while the teachers would restore the fund balance through their compensation he feels cuts now will make the eventual outcome of the declining revenues less catastrophic. 

State legislators, he said, could have done a better job in Lansing but the longterm goal as presented by Gov. Rick Snyder is an indication that schools across the state should anticipate more cuts and realignment. "There will be more manipulation of the money," he said. 

Meanwhile, Gafa declined to support the cuts saying either way the teachers are absorbing the cuts--through support staff rather than financially.

Walsh said the choice to dip significantly into fund balance has been the trend throughout the state and that regardless the teachers are likely to cuts to compensation eventually and the board needs to recognize whether diminishing services to the students is the right route. 

The cuts as approved Monday include reductions in:

• classroom assistants
• secretarial staff
• technology staff
• custodial staff
• curriculum specialists
• non-mandated special education assistants
• elementary resource center
• course section offerings at high schools

 The last of the reductions means class size is likely to grow but school board members said it wouldn't be significant giving the example of maybe a teacher taking on two additional students by offering one fewer sections of a particular course.

The approval also included rejecting a re-organization of the elementary day schedule that would have allowed for the Spanish curriculum to become part of the weekly schedule versus monthly and would have allowed additional library time by providing additional staff. 

Although the board voted to reject this through the larger item on hand, the budget, they later approved a motion to accept it conceptually noting it is not financially supported but that if district officials can work it out to make it happen, they support the change.

Grosse Pointe Education Association President Ranae Beyerlein said afterward implementing the changes in the elementaries requires that officials return to the drawing board to determine how to make it happen without additional resources. She noted doing so is difficult when decisions such as Monday's are made during summer break when none of the teachers or staff are around. 

Although she said it's clear the board cares about how its decisions will impact employees, teachers will still "bare the brunt no matter what." If it's not financially, then it's in the classroom where teachers will have fewer assistants and more students to handle, she said. 

Earlier this year the but then . More recalls are unlikely after Monday's decision, Beyerlein said. 

Thankfully the district isn't in such a bad financial situation yet that cutting arts or sports is necessary, Beyerlein said, noting there isn't "fat to trim" from the already lean budget meaning any cuts imposed will have a direct impact on employees.

Beyerlein said when the teachers signed the contract last year, they agreed to helping the district meet it's 10 percent reserve goal with the thought it would never happen. Historically, it hasn't dipped that low, Beyerlein said, noting they didn't believe it would truly be a possibility but members will follow the contract.

Teachers have agreed to concessions and recognized their role in helping the district achieve the bigger picture goals, Beyerlein said, noting the already reduced salary schedule that makes Grosse Pointe less competitive as compared to other districts.

She hopes the community recognizes the concessions by teachers and recognizes the eventual need for their own contribution to the solution, she said.