The Board of Education’s Finance Committee is recommending Superintendent Patrick Twomey come up with $500,000 worth of cuts and increased revenues for next school year.
Dr. Twomey believed much of the savings can be achieved through attrition.
“We have seven teachers retiring this year,” said Dr. Twomey. “So in terms of cutting personnel, I think you’ll see either very little or none.”
However, Twomey said the district will not have seven fewer teachers next school year. He said the district would look at different ways of offering certain programs, perhaps by combining some of them. He does not expect the district to look any different next school year than it does now.
In terms of cutting personnel, I think you'll see either very little or none.
Twomey said that in coming up with the $500,000 figure, the district considered nearly a dozen different possibilities regarding state funding for next school year and how much of the pension cost will be shifted to local schools.
The district settled on the possibility that schools will be asked to pay half-a-percentage point of the pension costs and that General State Aid for public education will be funded at 89%.
The 89% refers to the fact that the state funded public schools at only 89% of the level promised in 2009.
“Because they’ve never raised the per-pupil expenditure since that time, it’s really 89% of what the number was back in 2009. An 11% reduction is a very significant amount of reduction,” said Twomey.
On Monday night, February 24, Twomey will present to the school board his recommendations for achieving the $500,000 figure. He said the board will be asked to approve the plan during its meeting in March.
He said unless the state does something drastic to hurt schools, Macomb won’t need to go through the cost-cutting process again next year.
