Saline school board to tackle budget Tuesday; contract negotiations ongoing
Saline Area Schools’ Board of Education will be tasked with approving a budget Tuesday that Superintendent Scot Graden said — as of 3 p.m. Monday — is still being tweaked.
Board members also will be asked to pass the budget with the district's union negotiations ongoing.
“We are literally continuing to work on (the budget) today and tomorrow,” Graden said Monday. “We certainly have to have a balanced budget. We are not in the position to be looking at deficit spending.”
Scot Graden
Saline was paying particular attention to the MPSERS reform movement because of its $1.7 million structural deficit, Graden said. According to a district-by-district analysis released by the state, Saline Area Schools would have saved about $1.03 million in retirement costs per the reform bill, which passed in the State House of Representatives on June 14. The bill would have frozen districts’ contribution rates at about 24.5 percent of their total payroll rather than increase contribution rates to about 27.4 percent.
“We had our eyes on it and were pretty hopeful it would be done in time for us to pass our budget,” Graden said of the MPSERS reform bill. “We would love to hear it be acted on later this summer … but for now, our budget is going to have to include the 27.4 percent.”
He said it's tough, and the district is looking at both program and staffing adjustments as a result.
The administration will present its proposed budget to the board at Tuesday’s meeting, Graden said, adding this year has not been a typical budget process due to the open contracts with the district’s three collective bargaining units, Saline Area Schools Administrators Association, the Saline Education Association and Saline Education Support Personnel.
These contracts expire at the end of the month. At the last regular board meeting on June 13, the SESP spoke with fervor asking the district not to privatize support staff.
Graden said the budget administrators are drafting assumes the negotiations will not be final by Tuesday’s meeting and has built into it the same parameters as the current contracts. Graden said if concessions can be agreed upon, the district will need to amend its budget.
If the Board of Education does not pass a balanced budget and the district enters deficit spending, it will be the third district in the county, in addition to Ypsilanti and Willow Run, to operate on a deficit.
“My sense is that we will not be passing a deficit budget,” Graden said. “The board is the board, and its their decision, but my belief is they do not want that (fate) for us either.”
Staff reporter Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.
Comments
Poorman
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 9:22 p.m.
This now needs to be a surplus budget so we can start to replenish a cash fund that has gone to payroll raises of $1,000,000 just last year when Saline was out of funds. A balanced budget is spoken of as a stretch goal. We now need to pay ourselves back and restore a cash reserve. Please be responsible with our tax money and our school.
BigSexy76
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 3:17 p.m.
The Saline Area Schools district has always prided itself on being the center of learning and excellence. The unfortunate thing is that the district has never been smart when it comes to good fiscal management and good overall business sense. The belt tightening should have began a decade ago when it was very obvious that Michigan was going down the tubes. TYhe schoolboard needs to hire a firm from the outside to go over the books and the reason why the district is such bad shape. Proper accountability and transperency in the way the district spends our tax dollars is the only way to turn the ship around!
bobslowson
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 1:46 p.m.
Blame Snyder
xmo
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 1:15 p.m.
Why cann't schools and government pass a balanced budget? If you don't have the money to pay for it then don't spend it? Cut the non-essentials or reduce the essentials! After all, its OUR MONEY that they are spending! If you don't want cuts, Then send in an extra $10,000.00 or so!
Topher
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 1:22 p.m.
non-essentials and essentials also depend greatly on perspective. Are sports essentials? What about special education? What about classroom aides? Art? Music? School secretaries? Computers for students to use?
Topher
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 1:20 p.m.
xmo -They built budgets on what was allotted to them by the state. When Snyder shifted the money to giving tax cuts to businesses, there is less of OUR money going to schools. It's a budgetary shift that schools must adapt to. The idea is that ultimately more businesses mean more jobs and, more people, and more money (if the idea works); in the meantime it means way less money for schools.
Bulldog
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 12:47 p.m.
I hope Graden has figured in another round of generous raises for his dedicated teachers.
Lac Court Orilles
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 12:04 p.m.
Dave & Dave will get another chance to apply their Tea Party Solutions to save the Saline Schools. They will shout to the sky the Tea Party War Cry that teachers who played by the rules are all at fault without mentioning to anyone that Governor Engler changed the way teacher retirements were pre funded and caused the whole problem in the first place.
SpamBot1
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 4:15 p.m.
The "stubborn facts" are just one side of the story. The other side of the story highlights how Michigan, with help from Democrats and Republicans, has been racing towards this problem since the Engler administration. http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/04/a_look_at_the_history_of_mpser.html (Search "A look at the history of MSPERS" by Julie Mack) Recent efforts to open endless charter schools and to privatize the work force have ballooned the problem. The private companies that run charter schools rake in 100's of millions of tax-payer dollars, shuttle them off to their parent companies and do not pay a dime into the retirement system, making it less and less stable. This tax dodge is a huge boon to those companies and a hidden tax on every taxpayer in Michigan. This problem has been coming for many years and the current party in charge has two options; They can solve the problem by keeping businesses whole and blaming/burdening teachers, or they can ask these multi-billion dollar "non-profits" to help solve the problem they have created and benefited from. Regarding the legislation that Holden, Zimmer, and several others support, the Citizens Research Council said "Teachers are the most important ingredient in the education equation. In addition to affecting the financial situation of current teachers, the contemplated legislation could certainly influence the type and quality of teachers that schools are able to recruit in the future." In Michigan, we continue to race to the bottom of the tea cup.
DB Holden
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 3:17 p.m.
Sorry the link broke: http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/06/study_michigan_is_one_of_34_st.html
DB Holden
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 3:13 p.m.
I offer this for your consideration, a study done by the Pew Center. "The center said experts call funding about 80 percent of long-term obligations, and listed Michigan as paying 72 percent, underfunding the plan each year between 2005 and 2010." Facts are stubborn things. MPSERS is a broken retirement plan and the students of today are paying the price. http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/06/study_michigan_is_one_of_34_st.html
Mike
Tue, Jun 26, 2012 : 11:53 a.m.
And the theme throughout our government continues; Wayne county just announed a 1.5 billion shortfall in funding pensions, Saline has a problem, Ann Arbor has a problem, etc. There are very few government agencies who actually have the cash to pay their retirees. The federal government is 16 trillion in debt so don't look to them for a handout. When are we going to wake up and actually reform this problem? I understand that if anyone tries to fix the problem a recall election will begin the following day organized by the unions. And the people remain silent while we wreck the future for our children and grandchildren. Can you say Greece????????