Marquette Preliminary School Budget Talks

Michigan school districts are getting ready for a huge drop in state foundation allowance funding.

Governor Rick Snyder has proposed a cut for this fall of $470, per student, for every district in the state.

For the Marquette Area Public Schools, that would be $2.9 million dollars.

Phase 1 of their budget plan calls for losing the equivalent of 14 full–time employees.

Now the school board is looking at phase 2.

85% of the budget is tied up in personnel costs.

Interim superintendent Debbie Veiht says for that reason, most of the cuts will have to be related to personnel, but they’re also looking at ancillary areas.

She says they’re already making $700,000 of cuts, but that won’t be nearly enough to get the district out of the hole.

Those areas also include athletics.

Marquette sports are pay–to–play, and there’s a very high participation rate.

There’s a sliding scale to prevent kids from being excluded based on family income.

The $2.9 million cut the district is planning for represents more than 10% of its budget.

Some of the money represents federal stimulus dollars that will expire this summer.