The Wayland Union school district’
s $26.5 million budget for fiscal year 2015-16 is about the same as it has been for the past several years, but the fund balance has slipped slightly to 7.35 percent.
Finance Director Bill Melching told school board members Monday night that the budget for the fiscal year just ending June 30 shows an excess of $8,000 in revenue over spending, thanks to cuts in expenditures of about $140,000. He said he had hoped for a $17,000 surplus, but a decrease in revenue from fees hurt that effort.
Next year’s budget will include a per-pupil state aid allowance of $7,326, the largest contribution from Lansing since the 2010-11 fiscal year. However, enrollment, which briefly increased by 100 students a couple of years ago, has flattened, making the funding boost minimal.
Included in the budget will be a four-year loan of $640,000 from United Bank at 2½% to pay for iPads computer tablets for 1,350 students and 130 staff members. The vote to approve the expense was 5-2, with board newcomers Toni Ordway and Pete Zondervan dissenting.
Former board member Jeff Salisbury said the board later in the meeting, “No more loans. Please stop borrowing money.”
Salisbury also expressed opposition to the board going back to privatizing the drivers’ education program, entering into a contract with Century Driving School. The school district a couple of years ago decided to offer driver’s education through instructors in the school system.
Melching said Century Driving School offered to reduce its fee from $390 to $335 per student and noted the schools’ break-even costs were about $300 to $325 by doing it in-house.
One reason he wanted to go back to Century is that, “They have cameras in their cars and we don’t.”
He added that Century would consider hiring Wayland school staff as instructors.
As far as cuts in expenditures, it appears that one teaching position and a partial job is on the block. And the board has agreed to having more and more classroom aides reduced to less than 30 hours in order to avoid paying their health care costs under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
Though it was funded in the past by casino revenue, the program in which adults could get into athletic events for free has been terminated. Students still can get in free if accompanied by an adult.
The food service budget is operating at a break-even level, but health care costs are pegged at a 5% increase for those eligible. The schools will continue the 80-20 program, in which employees pay 20% of the costs of the premiums, which is slightly cheaper than the “hard cap” approach.
Melching told the board the district’s goal is to get the fund balance up to 7.85%, by this time next year and as high as 12% of the budget in the next several years.
