Funding and flu...how's that for alliteration? I know most of you are probably not aware of how school funding works, so let me give you a quick "School Funding 101" course. Normally, we get 11 state aid payments, but our final check for the current school year doesn't come until August 20. Remember that our fiscal (budget) year begins on July 1. Yesterday (October 21) we got our first state aid payment with money for the 2009-2010 school year. So, technically we run our district from July 1 through October 20 on our fund equity. That's one of the reasons we keep a healthy fund equity; so we don't have to borrow money to pay our employees, etc.
The newest state aid bill, signed recently by Governor Granholm, cut our state payment by $165 per student divided into those 11 payments. There are multiple line items on our payment from the state, including special ed funding, at risk money, school lunch reimbursement, and a discretionary amount that we can use any way we want. Much to our surprise, there was an additional HUGE cut in our discretionary payment; nearly double the size of our per pupil cut. So...our payment from the state was $93,000 less than it should have been. Multiply $93,000 by 11 payments and that would be a cut of more than $1 million. We're being told that we'll be able to get the discretionary money back if we formulate a district consolidation plan by February 1. Our state government never ceases to amaze me!
Regarding the flu...districts to the west and north of us have already been closed for 1-2 days because of high student absences due to the flu. We continue to monitor our attendance daily and we are in communication with the Sanilac County Health Department and the Michigan Department of Community Health regularly. I can tell you daily what districts are closed due to illness. If we see our incidences of flu increase dramatically, we would consider shutting down schools to stop the rampant spread of the virus. Generally, if we dip below 80% attendance, we begin to consider closing. So far, each building has stayed well above 90% and we have not seen a dramatic increase in flu-related absence. We'll use our School Messenger system to keep you informed in the event that it becomes an issue for the district.
Sincerely,
Kevin D. Miller, Ph.D.
Cros-Lex Superintendent.
