Rogers City Area Schools at a critical juncture

Rogers City Area Schools interim superintendent Paul Mancine said Monday there are some important decisions that need to be made in the very near future to not just save the district money, but to save the district. Mancine was to clear to point out that his presentation at Monday?s school board meeting wasn?t to paint a picture of doom and gloom, but to get the attention of everyone associated with the school and people in the community. ?This is a reality check here,? said Mancine. ?If we did nothing to correct our course, I?m going to guess in two years we?ll be out of funds and you?ll be accelerating that deficit and it will really cause a crisis situation.? Mancine?s presentation was heard after chief financial officer/business manager Don Schaedig proposed a budget amendment that included significant revenue reductions along with expenditure increases.

?I?M NOT REALLY happy to be the bearer of bad tidings,? said Schaedig before going through his report. The majority of the revenue loss was from the federally funded Title program. ?Apparently the (2000) census data indicates that our low income numbers are not there. Yet on the other hand you look at our free lunch applications and those seem to be up,? Schaedig said. ?We?ve lost a little more than 15 percent and I?m not sure where we?re headed next year either.? Enrollment figures also ended up below projections.

?We projected 20-some students less and we actually ended up with 33,? said Schaedig. ?We know that enrollment drives revenue. That will catch up with us in the next couple of years.? Projected revenue was nearly $50,000 less on September 30 ($4,967,540), when comparing the figure from June 13, 2005 ($4,919,106). Some of the largest increases on the expenditure list were for diesel fuel ($10,000) and natural gas ($20,000). Schaedig said the natural gas rate could end up being higher.

BOARD MEMBERS approved the 2005-06 budget amendment No. 1 which reflects total revenues of $4,919,106 and expenditures of $5,165,144. The projected fund balance has shrunk as well, which is a major concern for school officials. It went from $1,003,267 on June 30 to $757,229 on June 30, 2006. The projected deficit is $246,038. Mancine said that Sc

haedig, who has served the district as business manager for 37 years, has had the feeling that people were not listening to him about the direction of the finances. ?It is very important,? said Mancine. ?Finances our are the life blood. You can talk about the mission and everything else, but if you don?t have money to fund it we?re talking trouble.? Mancine believes further cost containment measures need to be addressed for the 2006-07 school year and something needs to be looked at immediately. The Planning and Finance Committee will meet with the administration to further analyze the budget and future forecasts.

The board also will spend a portion of its workshop session October 24 as a time to discuss the financial challenge and possible solutions. ?WE HAVE to plan for the inevitable which is declining funds,? said Mancine. ?If you have a two family income and it goes to one, you have to make some choices and you have to live within your budget, while still providing a quality of family life, in our case, while still providing services to our kids. Again, though, I tend to get doomy and gloomy. It?s not a crisis yet, thankfully.? When Mancine was hired as interim superintendent in the Atlanta school district he said ?They didn?t do anything in time. They waited too long to make the changes,? said Mancine. ?By the time I got there, instead of having $350,000 in their fund balance they had minus $30,000. You don?t want to be there. You don?t want to be in that messy situation. We?re not there yet.