Budget Cuts for Marquette Schools

School districts across the U.P. have lots of budget concerns heading into this fall.

The Marquette Area Public Schools board is meeting right now at Graveraet School to outline the solutions they’ve devised.

The school board has come up with over $2.8 million dollars of cuts.

That’s enough to make up the deficit for this fall and give a bit of a head start on the following year.

About twice as many teachers are retiring as the district expected.

MAPS Superintendent Jon Hartwig says upwards of 30 teachers have told the district they’ll be moving on when they were only planning for 15.

The retirements are about 30% of the budget cuts.

Another 30% comes from state aid cuts that won’t be as deep as originally thought, if they even happen at all.

The district is also looking at privatizing its custodial positions.

If MAPS does that, it would save up to $800,000 within 5 years at the cost of up to 12 jobs.