SAGINAW Today, Mid-Michigan school districts are worried about what it will take to
balance their books after suffering tough cuts.
Both Saginaw and Bay City schools need to cut millions more from their budgets
after the governor agreed to a state aid cut of $470 a student.
In Saginaw, the district faces a $10.6 million budget hole. Around $3.6 million
of that was caused by the state's cuts to per pupil funding.
In Bay City, administrators are trying to fill in a roughly $9 million budget
deficit. The superintendent says about half of that is the result of less state
aid in this year's budget.
"Balance for them means that we've got some work to do yet," said Bay City
Superintendent Douglas Newcombe.
And in both districts, those numbers add up to more cuts.
Pink slips have already went out to 134 teachers. In Bay City, there will be
staff cuts too.
"We are recommending a 12 percent across the board layoff," said Saginaw Public
Schools CFO Phoebe Wood.
Despite the grim numbers, both Bay City and Saginaw Public Schools are trying to
focus on the positives while looking for ways to recoup their losses.
"Our base cut is $470. But we also are understanding that there's going to be
about a hundred dollars that you're going to get to offset retirement costs, and
there is a hundred dollars for best practices, and we intend on getting the best
practices part," Newcombe said. "What I am absolutely not willing to do, is I'm
not willing to reduce programs and services for students."
In Saginaw, school leaders are counting on the implementation of the Promise
Zone to help retain or reclaim students. Right now, they are budgeted to lose
482 students.
"So if we can keep those students, that's $3.5 million that we won't have to
cut," Wood said.
"Absolutely a worst case scenario, we are going to continue to work over the
summer to get students back. That's going to have one of the biggest impact, but
it's a worst case scenario that we think is going to be better in the fall,"
Wood said.
Saginaw has already approved its budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1,
while Bay City will vote on its budget on Monday.
