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MCAS Board Wary About Budget

Laurie Wink
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - Members of the Michigan City Area Schools board voiced concerns about the proposed 2009 budget during a public work session earlier this week.

A general fund of $51.7 million was submitted by Superintendent Michael Harding, a 5 percent increase from 2008.

MCAS School Board President Clyde Zeek said the fund covers salaries, employee benefits, supplies and equipment. Zeek said the state awards the school corporation $7,700 for each student who is enrolled on a designated date in September.

Board members have raised questions in a number of budget areas. Zeek said he was unhappy with the nearly $1.5 million purchase of 15 new buses, a GPS system and the addition of six bus routes.

"The question was about the need for additional routes when the student population is going down," Zeek said. "We've been losing about 75 students a year and it's been like that consistently for 10 years."

Board member Jim Kintzele wanted specific information about administrative positions. Employee salaries and benefits total more than $35 million in the new budget. Instead of lumping all positions together, Kintzele asked school administrators for an itemized list of administrative positions, names of people in them and their salaries.

"My concern is jobs come up in the middle of the year and we find out we OK'd them but they were never spelled out in the budget," Kintzele said. "I want to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has said state schools are heavy with administrators and teachers who are not paid enough. If re-elected in November, Daniels has pledged to push for education funding changes, including measures to streamline the ranks of school administrators.

The school budgeting process is different this year with passage of state property tax relief legislation, known as HB 1001. As of January 2009, the state takes over responsibility for providing public school general operating funds. School districts will no longer receive a portion of the county property taxes.

In the MCAS 2009 proposed budget, MCAS will receive an estimated $1.7 million in additional funding for 2009, a 4 percent increase over last year's general fund. Harding predicted Michigan City could lose about $1.4 million in funding for 2009 with the passage of HB 1001.



Contact Laurie Wink at lwink@thenewsdispatch.com.