Wayland Union Schools Supt. Tim Reeves was awarded a 5% increase in annual salary and an extension of three years for his employment contract.
All administrators in the district also will receive 5 percent increases.
Reeves, who has been superintendent for the past two years, now will earn a salary of $171,838.
At first, not all school board members were on board with the action. Becky Hohnke told her colleagues she thought a 3 percent raise was fair.
“I think 3 percent is a significant increase,” said Hohnke, who added that she believes Reeves has done a splendid job in his two years. “I we’re going to give him 5%, then every should get 5%.”
But Trustee Jeff Koon said, “I don’t want to be sitting here two years from now and looking for another superintendent.”
Reeves himself said he believes he has done some “heavy lifting “ over the past two years because of the successful bond project, passage of the homestead millage last May and some personnel issues.
The superintendent said the bond project and its continuing progress has consumed much of his work time.
The board otherwise Monday evening spent a lot of time in approving the 2024-2025 fiscal year budget.
Leslie Wagner, director of finances and operations, said the district anticipates receiving $40,863.998 through state aid, local taxes and other sources of revenue and it has pegged expenditures at just about the same. She said the fund balance, or rainy day fund, currently stands at 19.7 percent.
“Our fund balance has grown by 8% over over the last 10 years,” she pointed out… We’re trying the remain at the status quo for expenditures in the next year.”
Wagner said state aid is the largest source of revenue, but that figure won’t be determined by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the State Legislature until October.
Wayland schools picked up about $31.5 million in state aid last year and Wagner said she hopes that figure will grow to more than $32 million in the next fiscal year. She said some estimates are for a $302 per pupil increase in 2024-25.
She acknowledged that enrollment has shown a slight decline over the past several years, down to 2,752.
In other matters, the school board approved all annual budgets for food service management with Chartwells for $1.92 million, administrative contracts with 5% increases, a $288,000 student activity fund, and the district’s non-affiliated wage scale.
WOW!!! In my opinion Reeves and Co are smooth and polished. In my opinion they should be politicians. They waited for the last piece of the puzzle to be voted on, and then make a million-dollar purchase and then vote each other raises, this was a smooth move. To read about the heavy lifting he has done…………If it weren’t for Velie the bond would have never passed, in my opinion she was the only one that people trusted.
I can only hope people remember this debacle.
Cheers!!