Today:

TOP JOBS Maintenance Tech Part-time, Fall & Winter. Full time Summer Apartment Community Maintenanc... DIRECT CARE STAFF Full and part time, afternoons/ midnights. Must have drivers license, GE...  [ View All Top Jobs ] TOP AUTOS SATURN 1994, 4 door, needs engine & to be towed, Single family car, $1000. 734-285-3614 TAURUS SE 1998 80K, V6, clean, must see, newer tires/brakes, $2400. 734-282-9594  [ View All Top Autos ] TOP HOMES WYANDOTTE 3 unit apartment building. 3 years old. $70,000 down with land contract. % 7.25.... WESTLAND MEADOWS 14'x80' Redman 3 bedroom 2 Bathroom Central Air New Furnace All Major App...  [View All Top Homes ] TOP RENTALS LINCOLN PARK 1 bdrm., w/ laundry, nice. $450 + dep. 734-284-3784 ROMULUS 3 Bedroom 1200 sf ranch full bsmt. remodeled kitchen and bath ceramic ,cedar and ...  [ View All Top Rentals ] TOP MERCHANDISE iSOLD It Ann Arbor eBay Consignment Sales Colonnade Center - Eisenhower Parkway Mon-Sat. 1... FOR SALE Thomasville colonial style hutch, 42 in. square antique oak table w/ leaf, 4 colo...  [ View All Top MDSE ]   View Classifieds   Submit a TopAd        or call 1-877-888-3202

	The Manchester Enterprise A Heritage Newspaper Weekly Publication

State cuts per-pupil spending

Cuts of about $84,000 equate to salary of two teachers

By Edward Freundl, Heritage Newspapers

PUBLISHED: May 3, 2007

As if school officials needed something else to worry about, the state delivered another blow to their budgets this week.

Advertisement

Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Monday ordered a $125-per-student cut in state aid to schools because of the state's budget deficit.

At 1,305 students, the latest cut means a loss of $163,125 for Manchester schools.

"I don't know yet whether we're going to go back to the school board and ask for more cuts, but I'm sure it will be a topic at the next two meetings," said Liz Wingfield, director of finance.

Wingfield said the state began the 2006-07 school year promising an increase of $210, but she had anticipated that reductions might be made throughout the year and had budgeted conservatively at only $150 per student.

"The impact on my budget as I presented it is $84,000," Wingfield said. "I projected a budget deficit as it was, and now it is going to be perhaps $80,000 more," or more than $500,000 total.

The cutbacks would take effect in 30 days unless the state comes up with money to avert them.

"I don't think the Legislature wants to cut schools, either, frankly, but they have no choice. We don't have the money," Granholm said Monday.

Manchester Superintendent David Oegema said the cuts would almost certainly have an effect on the district's teaching staff.

"That money is the equivalent of the salary for two teachers," he said. "It'll be hard to negotiate the next contract with any kind of raises in it."

Oegema said the school board in a difficult position.

The latest state cuts virtually erase the reductions the Board of Education made recently.

"We don't have much left to cut," Oegema said. "The board had a hard time cutting the $300,000 we already had to cut, and there's no desire on the part of the board to cut even more."

Oegema, who is retiring at the end of the school year, said the board likely will have little choice but to dip into the district's fund balance, which will leave it at a little less than $1 million.

"They'll have to do more cutting next year, and I don't know what they're going to cut," he said.

Edward Freundl is a reporter with Heritage Newspapers. He can be reached at 475-1371 or efreundl@heritage.com.