Though the Wayland Board o
f Education adopted the fiscal year 2015-16 budget June 22, some adjustments may have to be made, and those adjustments may not be pretty.
Superintendent Norman Taylor and Finance Director Bill Melching presented the school board with a budget that anticipates the same enrollment of students as last year. However, Taylor acknowledged during another part of the same meeting that preliminary indications are that there could be a drop in enrollment of kindergartners and Young Fives. Taylor said the youngest incoming students are running about 30 to 35 fewer than when school started last September.
More exact figures as of the end of June show 39 fewer kindergarten and Young Fives students than last year at Dorr and Baker elementaries. If these numbers hold, the district would see a whopping $285,714 decline in anticipated district revenues. The expected state aid payments this year will be $7,326 per pupil.
The figures could change between now and September 2015 because of changes in incoming and outgoing families. The current estimate of a drop of 39 takes in only the children in kindergarten and Young Fives.
However, if the revenue decrease remains, it will be coupled with the failure of the administration to meet the goal of bringing the district’s fund balance to an increase of between a half to a full percent over last year, which was pegged at 7.34%.
School board members made it clear at the June 22 meeting they were not happy that the projected fund balance for next year’s budget was $9,000 short of meeting its goal.
Finance Director Bill Melching reported the fund balance would be up by about $125,000.
Board Treasurer Toni Ordway, speaking about a proposed last-minute expense of $22,000 for athletic uniforms, said, “If we’re not meeting our (fund balance) goal, we need to ask ourselves if this is really needed… There is a perception that this is frivolous in the times we are facing.”
Melching said the uniforms expenditure was one of 1400 items listed in the budget and he didn’t think the board had the time to examine every one individually
Though there was discussion about prospects for laying off one teacher with the least seniority, Kaleigh Shuster at Dorr Elementary, Taylor assured that it would be likely she would be called back to work. However, this may be in jeopardy if the possible enrollment decline holds.
The general fund budget is for about $26.8 million with just over $2 million in the fund balance. The athletic budget is pegged at about $676,000 and revenue from the compact with the Gun Lake Casino has been estimated at just under $1.5 million. Expenses to be taken out of the casino fund include paying off the science wing addition at more than $290,000 a year and $168,321 annually for four years to equip all students and staff with iPad tablet computers.
The schools have decided to borrow money from Chemical Bank at the lowest bid of 1.64% to pay for the iPads and to purchase six new buses. The largest of the figures, however, is the annual borrowing of between $1.8 million and $2 million to deal with a temporary cash flow problem in late summer and early fall. The schools pay back United Bank the following June through state aid payments.
