Pontiac schools get until 2014 to eliminate deficit
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
By DIANA DILLABER MURRAY
Of The Oakland Press
Of The Oakland Press
State school Superintendent Michael Flanagan has agreed to give the Pontiac district until 2014 to eliminate its deficit and achieve a balanced budget.
Flanagan has also agreed to officials’ request to extend the filing deadline for the five-year deficit elimination plan until Feb. 15. Pontiac Superintendent Thomas Maridada II had asked for the filing extension because of the lateness in finalizing the state aid plan for school districts.
Even as late as last week, Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm announced that a $127 perpupil reduction in school aid payments to school districts is being paused, meaning it could still go through or be canceled at a later date. Without the pause, state officials would have processed the reduction in the Dec. 20 school aid payments.
The state had already cut by $165 per student the state aid for October and November in checks distributed to school districts last month.
Maridada, Interim Associate Superintendent of Business and Finance John Dietz and the Pontiac Board of Education met for almost four hours two nights last week working on options for reducing expenditures by more than $25 million over the next five years to achieve the goal of a balanced budget by 2014. The deficit is close to $15 million this year because of cuts in state aid and declining enrollment.
Without Flanagan’s approval, the district could have been faced with cutting expenditures by that amount in as little as two years.
Maridada is putting a priority on reaching concessions in employee health insurance that is costing the district $10 million this year and is expected to go up to $11 million next year.
Although a 10-percent pay cut was also included in a list of assumptions for the fiveyear budget, Dietz said last week that assumption and others are only “what if ” scenarios.
“The Pontiac School District has not asked its employees to take a 10 percent reduction in salary, nor was it our intent to do so,” Dietz explained.
“The ‘what if ’ scenarios spoke to if the district did not take other measures in cost cutting, it may eventually lead to this scenario,” he said. “They were provided to the board to share various options that would possibly occur over five years without any attention to cost cutting now.”
Maridada and trustees say it is necessary to not only stop the flow of students out of the district but to increase enrollment. They are convinced that achieving quality programs will attract more students to the district, which would also attract more state funding.
Among the many options discussed during the two night meetings to reduce expenditures were: Consolidating services with other entities; working out an agreement with SMART for transportation; reducing bus routes; working out an agreement with Oakland Schools for busing across district boundaries; leasing and renting vacant properties; fees for use of facilities; and getting grants for urban gardening.
They also discussed reducing pre-school classes to half days because funds for a fullday program have been cut, opening a tuition-paid latchkey or preschool program, closing an elementary school, selling vacant property and adjusting payroll periods.
Flanagan has also agreed to officials’ request to extend the filing deadline for the five-year deficit elimination plan until Feb. 15. Pontiac Superintendent Thomas Maridada II had asked for the filing extension because of the lateness in finalizing the state aid plan for school districts.
Even as late as last week, Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm announced that a $127 perpupil reduction in school aid payments to school districts is being paused, meaning it could still go through or be canceled at a later date. Without the pause, state officials would have processed the reduction in the Dec. 20 school aid payments.
The state had already cut by $165 per student the state aid for October and November in checks distributed to school districts last month.
Maridada, Interim Associate Superintendent of Business and Finance John Dietz and the Pontiac Board of Education met for almost four hours two nights last week working on options for reducing expenditures by more than $25 million over the next five years to achieve the goal of a balanced budget by 2014. The deficit is close to $15 million this year because of cuts in state aid and declining enrollment.
Without Flanagan’s approval, the district could have been faced with cutting expenditures by that amount in as little as two years.
Maridada is putting a priority on reaching concessions in employee health insurance that is costing the district $10 million this year and is expected to go up to $11 million next year.
Although a 10-percent pay cut was also included in a list of assumptions for the fiveyear budget, Dietz said last week that assumption and others are only “what if ” scenarios.
“The Pontiac School District has not asked its employees to take a 10 percent reduction in salary, nor was it our intent to do so,” Dietz explained.
“The ‘what if ’ scenarios spoke to if the district did not take other measures in cost cutting, it may eventually lead to this scenario,” he said. “They were provided to the board to share various options that would possibly occur over five years without any attention to cost cutting now.”
Maridada and trustees say it is necessary to not only stop the flow of students out of the district but to increase enrollment. They are convinced that achieving quality programs will attract more students to the district, which would also attract more state funding.
Among the many options discussed during the two night meetings to reduce expenditures were: Consolidating services with other entities; working out an agreement with SMART for transportation; reducing bus routes; working out an agreement with Oakland Schools for busing across district boundaries; leasing and renting vacant properties; fees for use of facilities; and getting grants for urban gardening.
They also discussed reducing pre-school classes to half days because funds for a fullday program have been cut, opening a tuition-paid latchkey or preschool program, closing an elementary school, selling vacant property and adjusting payroll periods.
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