'Cuts are Cuts': How New State Budget Affects Brighton Schools

A $300 per-pupil funding cut was top news out of Gov. Rick Snyder's 2012-13 state budget, which he announced Thursday. Multiply that by Brighton's 6,300 students, and you’ve got a problem, according to Brighton Area Schools Superintendent Greg Gray.

Gray said Brighton schools will lose $1.8 million in state funding in 2012-13 due to the plan. That's on top of a $170 per-pupil decrease, totaling $1.1 million in BAS, set to take effect in 2011-12. The cuts amount to a total revenue loss of $470 per pupil, or $2.9 million through 2013.

“Cuts are cuts,” said Gray. “Looks like it’s back to the drawing board."

Back in the red

Snyder's budget proposal came less than a month after Gray announced to the Board of Education that the district’s budget was finally balanced after $15 million in painful cuts over two years.

However, in an interview Thursday with Brighton Patch, Gray said the governor's announcement wasn’t a surprise.

“You could have predicted it. We knew the federal stimulus dollars were going away. We knew something was coming,” Gray said. “The devil’s in the details, and once we understand the data, we can formulate a plan that will work for our community.”

The news also comes as the district is set to start contract talks.

"Our negotiations will officially start at the end of March with the Brighton Education Association and could start at that time with our administration," said Gray, who is currently undergoing an evaluation himself by the board that determines the terms of his own employment.

Going forward, Gray said he will work closely with Maria Gistinger, assistant superintendent of finance, to meet the demands of the governor's proposed budget.

"I'll meet with her, discuss it with the board, work with my administration in groups, work with the unions. It's really a team effort," Gray said.

"I wish the economy in Michigan was doing better. It would be better for everybody. That’s just not the reality right now," Gray said.

Capitol perspective

Gray will have a voice in Lansing with state Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton, at the helm of two important education subcommittees in the state House.

As chairman of the state Department of Education and School Aid Appropriations subcommittees, Rogers will be hands-on when it comes to implementing the executive budget.

But first, he'll have to figure out what the 156-page plan actually entails.

"It's like a puzzle," Rogers said. "I just dumped out the pieces, and now I have to sit down and see how they all fit together."

Both subcommittees will meet Tuesday, Rogers said, to delve into the budget at length, hearing presentations by the House Fiscal Agency, along with testimony, phone calls and e-mails from the public. Rogers said he also hopes to hear from school superintendents.

“It’s definitely going to be painful,” Rogers said of the cuts.

Rogers said he was glad to see that Snyder suggested ways for districts to save money, such as cutting noninstructional costs by 10 percent and imposing an 80/20 health care cost split on public employees.

The bright side, if there is one, Rogers said, is that Snyder's plan calls for one thing school districts have long clamored for: consistency in when the state School Aid Fund's budget is completed.

Changes and political wrangling in Lansing have kept districts waiting on final word as to how much money they will receive from thes state until as late as October, after school is already under way and operational costs in full swing.

Under the governor's plan, a two-year budget must be in by June 1, giving districts time to plan.

“That in itself will help, although some of the news, as we’re all looking at it, it’s not pretty,” Rogers said.

Snyder's budget also calls for a 15 percent reduction to higher education. It combines K-12, community colleges and higher education into the School Aid Fund. He also eliminates all categorical programs and district-specific funding.