School officials ponder how to balance the budget

More deep cuts and layoffs will be necessary to deal with falling revenues and rising costs as school officials look for ways to balance the budget in Rogers City. This is the consensus of the board of education and the administration after a lengthy workshop meeting Monday. Business manager Don Schaedig noted that people might wonder how the school could negotiate new agreements with teachers and staff workers that include increases and benefits when facing a budget crisis. “The fact is, we made it clear to the union and non-union people that, regardless of the wage and benefits packages, cuts were going to be necessary to balance the budget,” Schaedig said after the meeting.

“A DEFICIT of around $160,000 last year was covered by the reduction of the fund equity percentage. The deficit for the current year is about $220,000 and we are looking at a shortfall of around $400,000 in next year’s budget,” he said. “These are big numbers that cannot be managed with small adjustments to expenditures,” he continued. Board members listened to a report by treasurer and finance committee chairman Keith Gordon on the various actions that will be needed to balance the budget. Student enrollment continues to drop, from 665 students last year to 642 this year and an estimated 624 next year. State aid is calculated on a per-pupil basis.

THE SCHOOL currently receives $6,600 per student with an estimated $150 increase to $6,750 next year. Schaedig informed the board that the extra amount from the state would not even cover the $165 extra per student needed just to pay for the increases in health insurance and retirement expenses. “That’s based on the cost of health insurance going up by 10 percent but it may be closer to a 15 percent increase,” he said. Gordon went on to say, “Some more money may come out of the fund equity but that all depends on how we do this budget.” “These expenditure changes are the ones we know for sure. We are not buying new books, we are not buying new buses, and none of that stuff is in there.

“WE’RE LOOKING at a deficit of about $220,000 for this year but that could be reduced if we receive that $80,000 hanging out there from Oglebay-Norton. Right now that is not on the revenue side, it’s a loss. So that’s where we are at this year,” Gordon said. “When we add all those expenditures and known increases, that takes the budget for next year up to $5,470,000 but our revenues are decreasing due to lower student numbers,” he continued. Gordon went on to describe how closing the second floor of the Grambau Center and relocating the fifth grade students to the elementary school and the sixth graders to the

high school would net about $60,000 in savings.

Parental concerns about having younger students in the high school would have to be addressed by creating a physical barrier between the high school area and sixth graders. Assistant principal Missy Wozniak described this area as a “middle school in the middle.” Gordon mentioned the possibility of sharing classes and administration resources with Posen and/or Onaway. “We may have to look at transportation cuts. The school district is not obligated to provide busing. One option is to have central pickup areas for some bus routes,” he said.

BOARD MEMBER Hanson directed some comments at the end of the meeting to the teachers and staff present. “We all share the same concern about our schools. This last year on the board has been really difficult for me, a lot of personal relationships with teachers have suffered because of this economic problem and that really hits me. “I remember the signs on the lawns and the orange T-shirts that said, ‘Save Our School’ well, now is the time to help us do just that,” said Hanson. He was referring to the fact that some schools have early retirement incentives (ERI) and explained after the meeting that Rogers City can’t afford that route. “If there are folks of retirement age who are thinking about doing so, now is the time to step forward. If we can get six or seven people to voluntarily retire we can get through this,” he said.

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