Here we go again! RC Area School expecting more cuts

by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor Officials of Rogers City Area Schools plan to spend the next two weeks assembling lists of potential budget cuts and seeking input about how to balance the district’s finances in the face of substantial cuts in state funding. The district needs to cut at an estimate $95,000 this school year. During Monday’s board of education meeting, superintendent Jamie Huber reported on a $165 per student cut from their foundation grant agreed upon by lawmakers in Lansing last week. As of Monday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s approval of the new budget was only a formality.

“Bottom line for our district, that means a $95,000 reduction for this current fiscal year, which we are a quarter of the way through the fiscal budget, ” said Huber. “It is definitely a tough thing we are going to have to tackle and deal with.” THE BOARD has the first of two scheduled workshops planned October 26. ?Usually (October workshop) involves goal setting and updating the master plan,? said president Mike Marx. ?this probably has become secondary, due to the fact that we need to look at the budget.? Traditionally, the board irons out the budget?s fine details or makes cuts in the spring, said Marx who charged the administrative staff, along with the planning and finance committee to come up with recommendations for the full board. ?From my standpoint, to the greatest extent, we need to minimize the amount of disruption that it could cause our students,? said Huber. ?With strictly reductions at this point in the school year, it would be very disruptive to the programs that we do have running.?

HUBER REMINDED the board they already are in a $178,000 budget deficit mode. ?That also needs to be considered in the equation when we begin to tackle this issue,? said Huber. ?I wish there was some light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m not a doom and gloom guy, that’s not me, because we’ve got great things going on here. In the years that I’ve been here, I know that we can come together as a district and get through just about anything, bec

ause, to be honest with you, I feel that we have. This is just one more hurdle.? Huber said the district is facing a reduction of $300 to $600 per student next year. The student count as of September 30 was near projections at 559.4-fulltime equivalency, factoring in parochial students who take various electives in the district, including band. ?Some of the intangibles, you can’t plan for,? said Huber. ?I know I can go through three different families and come up with 10 different kids that moved from our district. One family moved to Germany, one family moved to West Branch and another moved for a job.?

After a class of about 63 graduates in June, Huber believes the numbers will level off at 50 a year, except for a small freshmen group coming through in a few years. One piece of good news from the state is they didn?t scrap the three-year blended count, keeping Rogers City enrollment figure still at 580. The board also heard from their auditor, C.P.A. Mark Sandula, who turned in a favorable report, despite the financial challenges.