Onaway school budget approved

by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor

A budget of $6 million was approved at Tuesday?s regular meeting of the Onaway Area Community Schools board of education. How much it will change in the coming months will be up to lawmakers in Lansing.

There seems to be mixed news about how Lansing will fund public education. Will some of the per pupil foundation grant taken away last fall be restored? Could there be another reduction? School officials in Onaway, and across the state, continue to wait, and in the meantime, by law the 2010-11 fiscal budget had to be in place before July 1, the beginning of another budget year.

INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT/business manager Rod Fullerton led a mandatory budget hearing and said the $6,089,773 budget is based on several assumptions,? That the $165 pro-ration that was enacted for the 2009-10 school year will roll over to the 10-11 school year,? he said. ?And it assumes an additional reduction of the foundation allowance of $268 per pupil.?

Fullerton has heard there could be a freeze on the $268 projected reduction and a restoration of the $165, which forced the school board to make drastic cuts a few months ago. There seems to be glimmers of financial hope emanating from Lansing, but school officials have learned to not get their hopes too high, because figures have changed on a dime.

Last year, with the budget already in place, Michigan school districts had to go back to the drawing board and work with a $165 per student reduction, Fullerton said the 10-11 budget is based on a projected drop of about 10 students, which has been the average per year. There?s also red ink to carry over.

?BASED ON the 09-10 budget, we are projecting a loss of $276,000,? said Fullerton. ?That puts the fund balance at $1,017,236, for a fund balance percentage of 15.51 percent of expenditures.? Based on the revenues and expenditures for the 2010-11 school year, we should end the year at a $191,478 deficit, he said. That would leave the fund balance at $825,758, 13.56 percent of expenditures. Also factored into the new budget is a yet-to-be purchase of a used bus at an approximate cost of $30,000.

Only four board members were in attendance, but it was enough to formally approve the general fund. The food budget, which has been self-sustaining, will be $292,500, while the athletic budget will be $96,275.

One of the causalities of the 2009-10 budget was the unpopular decision to eliminate the band director?s position. During the public comment period, Caroline Pregitzer, the wife of former band director Karan Pregitzer, expressed concern that the program will not be available to students in the fall.

?PEOPLE APPROACH us and can?t understand why,? said Pregitzer. ?The other thing we are concerned about is when you drop music, there?s not much left for the o

ther students. If they are not interested in sports, what are they going to do? It appears that art and shop are the only in-school alternative for the one credit that students need in the fine arts, and also in the applied arts.

Pregitzer said, ?You?re awful heavy into sports. We think sports are fine, but there needs to be a balance. It keeps some kids in school, which is fine, but so does band.? Additionally, Pregitzer believes a new band teacher needs to be hired now, because all the good ones will be gone in the coming months. She also is concerned that music is not taught at the elementary level.

Earlier in the meeting, principal/athletic director Marty Mix commented on the achievements of the student athletes. ?In the last three years alone, athletically, $160,000 in scholarships has been given out to our kids. It?s a lot of money this school is producing between their athletics and their academics.? Nearly a quarter-of-a-million dollars in scholarship money was awarded to the Class of 2010.