Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

MSD Cost Containment Plan Finalized

After months of planning and plenty of public input, the Macomb Board of Education unanimously approved the district’s cost containment plan.

The $501,650 plan combines savings with increased revenues.  Much of the savings will come through attrition.

“I’m actually very satisfied with it (the plan),” said Superintendent Patrick Twomey.  “To think you have the opportunity to reduce your budget by half-a-million dollars and nobody loses employment and nobody loses a stipend.”

There are just a few differences between the final plan and the proposal unveiled in February.

The district will not increase the number of fundraisers allowed for clubs and other organizations as originally proposed, and the junior high school football program will not be eliminated, though the paid coaching staff will be reduced from four to two.  Volunteers will fill the other coaching slots.

To account for those changes, the district will no longer cover the entire cost of  transportation for an after-school program at the YMCA.  Instead the district and the Y will split the cost, saving the district $13,400.

“When you’re in the financial situation we find ourselves in and we’re reducing our own budget, we had to look at what that meant to continue subsidizing another program – the Y program – and cutting our own programs,” said Twomey.

He said the district’s students benefit from the program and they won’t see any changes in it.  Twomey said he talked to the Y director about splitting the transportation cost before including it in the cost containment plan.

Rich is TSPR's News Director.