We feel it is important to continue our efforts to communicate to the community and staff about the funding of Hopkins Public Schools. As we informed you earlier we are facing some difficult times. We are in the same position that many families, businesses and social groups are in. Our projected revenues will not meet the projected expenses.
We continue to try to be inclusive in the process and as transparent as possible. We informed the staff and community of our concerns early in the spring and asked for potential cost saving options. A list of possible options was created and estimated savings were developed. Those options were discussed in Board committees, in open Board meetings, at a Community Forum, at a budget hearing and the Board approved a budget for 2009 – 2010 at the June 15, 2009 Board meeting.
The 2009 – 2010 budget includes some reductions and reflects some cost saving measures. We were able to save expenses through not replacing all the staff that retired through our incentive plan. We are reducing building and district supply budgets. We are reducing some extra curricular clubs and activities in buildings. We will work to reduce our energy cost. We have eliminated playground aides and our building paraprofessionals will be supervising recess. For the past nearly five years, we have used some of our fund equity to balance the budget and have not had to make additional reductions in athletics, fine arts, and classroom offerings.
We would again like to remind the community that our budget is built without having hard numbers. Our funding is based on a per student allocation. We will not know the number of students that will be used to provide our state funding until after school starts. Right now we are basing our budget on estimates from experts in Lansing. We also do not know what our per student allocation will be. We are waiting for Lansing to set that amount as well. Given those variable, we are building a conservative budget. Our plan is to continue to watch the variables and as the funding numbers become clearer we will have the option to restore some things that we have had to eliminate at this time. Please know that there will be some things lost. The amount of additional resources will not be able to meet all the potential expenses.
Hopkins has been fortunate to be working with two separate funding sources for the past few years. We have general fund money that is used to pay for the operations of the district and also bond funds. Bond funds have limited use. They can only be used for our building projects. These funds are helping our general fund budget, by keeping maintenance expenses down. It is hard for some to understand how on one hand we are making reductions in programs, but spending money on renovations and new equipment. It is all part of the complex way we fund education in the State of Michigan.
We have a new set of funds that we will be able to access this year and next. They are the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds (ARRA). At the time of our last communication we did not know how these funds would be able to be used. That picture is becoming clearer, but as with all federal programs there will be unexpected issues to deal with. We will receive some of these federal funds by way of the state. They will use the funds to keep our per student allocation at last years level. No increase. The other federal funds will come to us but can only be spent to reinvent or re-imagine education. Given these restrictions we looked to our Strategic Plan and goals of the district to identify items that align with the expectations to inspire and equip our students to excel in our changing global environment. We are making plans to allocate funds for things like the addition of Literacy Coaches K-8, provide training to improve instructional delivery based on the work on Dr. Robert Marzano and a way to monitor those improvements, purchase on-line learning tools for acceleration and remediation in grades 6-12, and provide additional support in the area of student data. These new items are aligned with our Strategic Plan and the goals of the district and will help us continue to improve academic achievement.
We know that change is hard. Losing programs and things we have had for years is difficult. Our job is to continue to provide outstanding learning opportunities for the students of this community. Even in tough times we need to stay focused on finding ways to improve the learning outcomes for our students. We could hunker down and wait for the storm to pass and wait to see what is left, or we can choose to learn to dance in the rain and try to make something positive out of the opportunity that we have been given. We choose to dance in the rain.
