The School
District of the City of Wyandotte We started this year with a $2,000,000 fund balance, which should have been enough to handle any emergencies, and carry over to the next school year to ensure stability in the District. However, we lost about 80 students due to families moving out of the area. As you know, revenue follows the child so we lost $7,316 for each child that left us. This was unexpected, and used some of the fund balance. The federal government gave each State money (stimulus money) to fill the “gap” in school aid for 27 months. Michigan could not even fill the large gap in the state’s school aid fund for one year with its funds! In fact, we were cut $165 per student (x 4,300 students), which caused more of the fund balance to be used. (This was announced in October; our school fiscal year begins July 1.) We still had a small fund balance projected for June of 2010 until the end of November, when the State notified us that everyone would be cut another $127 per child (proration) because the state revenues were less than expected. With a few changes, we have been able to balance the budget for this year, but just barely. There is no fund balance to carry over to next year. We are being told that next year we will be cut the $165 + $127 from this year, plus another $300-$500 per student. We anticipate having to cut about $4,000,000 out of our budget for next year. Every School District in the area is facing similar cuts, and we are all very worried. We are working with other districts in the County and in the State to develop some ideas to help alleviate the reduction in projected revenue. We welcome ideas from the community and will keep you informed as we learn more. Please watch our Board Meetings as we discuss options through the winter, and try to make the best decisions possible for our children in the late spring.
Pat Cole |
