 |
| Lauren
Robar, 3, of Waterford Township, joins residents, students
and school personnel at the "What Students Deserve" rally
Thursday. The event to show support for students and
call on legislators to act, was at the Kurzman
Administration Offices in Waterford. |
Governor Granholm has issued a
$122 per-pupil proration to the 2006-07 school year budget. This
means the Waterford
School District will be cut
by nearly $1.4 million after the school year is over! Therefore,
we will have to spend down our dangerously low 5% fund balance to
cover the pro-rata reduction. This amounts to reductions to the
2006-07 school year of nearly $5.5 million. This is unacceptable!
Since the 2002-03 school year, the
Waterford
School District has:
-
Reduced our budget by $23 million, which represents a reduction
of 20% of our operating budget.
-
Eliminated 34 teaching positions – 7% of our teachers
-
Eliminated 18 custodial positions – 19% of our custodians
-
Eliminated 23 secretarial positions – 23% of our secretaries
-
Eliminated 21 administrative positions – 24% of our
administrators
-
Closed
two elementary schools
-
Maintained a 5% fund balance
-
Expended 78.9% of our funds - or $7,200 per pupil – directly
supporting the classroom
Cutting another $1.4 million from
Waterford
School District is the
equivalent of:
In addition, the
Waterford
School District continues to
work to maximize efficiencies of services while minimizing
operating costs and ensuring our tax dollars go to the children. This includes consolidation of services and cooperative agreements
with municipalities such as Waterford
Township
and Oakland
County, and other school districts such as
Huron
Valley, Walled
Lake, and
Oakland
Schools.
The message is simple:
-
No
more cuts to public education – period!
-
Education is the key to economic recovery in
Michigan
– we cannot afford to cut schools!
-
Kids
are not Democrats or Republicans so stop making them political
pawns
-
We
cannot keep doing this year after year – fix the problem now!
-
Proposal A has averaged a $500,000 per year shortfall to the
School Aid Fund – this problem is not new and must be fixed now!
Our elected officials must do
what’s hard, what’s right, what they are paid to do, and what they
were elected to do. Fix the structural problem to Michigan’s
budget once and for all!
“The whole people
must take upon themselves the education of the whole
people and be
willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a
district of
one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a
charitable
individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people
themselves.”
—
John Adams, U.S.
President, letter to John Jebb,1785
Please consider participating in
our What Students Deserve (WSD) Rally, next Thursday, May 10, at
4:30 p.m. at the Kurzman Administration Office,
Covert
Center. The Rally will serve
as a vehicle to show support for our students and a call to
legislators to act now. Our kids need us now!
Sincerely,
Robert R. Neu
Superintendent
Please contact
your legislators today. The next 30 days are critical!
Click here
for information to share with the legislators.
14 September 2007
Urgent Budget Information
Waterford Education Community:
The purpose of this message is to inform you of what is occurring
today in Lansing and the potential impact it could have on the
Waterford School District. The House will be in session all day
today “until there’s a resolution to the projected budget deficit
of $1.8 billion, and tax increases are likely to be part of the
conversation.” (Oakland Press, 9-14-07) Without this vote by
midnight tonight, we are told that the resolution of the budget
crisis won't happen, the State government could shut down, and
public schools are likely not to receive the October state aid
payment.
All districts began their school year July 1, 2007 however, state
aid payments are not received by districts until October 22, 2007.
As a result of state aid payments being 3 months behind, a loss of
our first payment for the 2007-08 school fiscal year will be
devastating to the Waterford School District. Without state aid,
the Waterford School District can only operate for 14 school days
before we exhaust our funds and may be forced to close.
In order for a deal to be struck by lawmakers, it will most likely
take compromises on a tax increase, health care and retirement
reforms, and additional cuts to state funded programs. I realize
that each of these areas are subject to great debate - that's why
we’re in this mess. However, if a deal is not reached the results
could be irreparable to Michigan residents and our children.
The most commonly discussed solution - not requiring a vote by the
people - is restoring the income tax rate to 4.4% - at least
temporarily. Please understand this is not sufficient to solve the
problem. In fact, the State needs at least $1.8 billion in
revenues or Michigan schools will be forced to continue cutting
for the next three to five years! The key issue in this discussion
is - any new revenue must contain an adequate earmark for public
schools, if not, we could be faced with the reality of increased
taxes and the community misunderstanding that the problem is
solved when our District will continue to be forced to cut
programs. Remember, the Waterford School District has cut $23
million from our operating budget over the last five years and we
have eliminated 165 jobs!
We must have a solution to the State budget crisis
NOW! We cannot continue this
uncertainty and partisan paralysis that threatens a government
shutdown and jeopardizes the education of our children and the
future of the State. If our Legislature supports the importance of
quality public schools for Michigan's children, then they need to
vote yes for increased revenues and adequately earmark any new
revenues for public education. It is vital that the message be
clear – Legislators need to solve the crisis and fix public school
funding now.
To contact your Legislators, please see the
local legislators resource.
Thank you for your support,
Robert R. Neu
Superintendent
