Office of the Superintendent
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May is an exciting and busy time of the year for our students and staff. As I look at the district and building calendars, I see some kind of celebration, concert or end-of-year activity in every school. Many of our elementary schools are holding ice cream socials and field days. Our middle and high schools are recognizing student musicians with musicals, choir and band concerts. And finally, we are getting ready to say goodbye to our graduating seniors with honors convocations, scholarship award ceremonies and commencement. It is truly the most enjoyable and gratifying time to be an educator. We welcome students in the fall, devote our time and talents to helping them learn and grow, and honor their achievements at the end of the school year. By the time June 13 comes, we are already starting to think about the next school year.
And speaking about the 2013-14 school year, this is also the time of year that we begin to solidify our budget projections. We are still waiting for the legislators and governor in Lansing to come to consensus, and when they do we will have a better idea of how the budget will look when the Board of Education adopts it at the end of June. Currently, all three proposals provide revenues that are less than the previous year, either in the Foundation Allowance or one-time revenues. This is discouraging to us, as we strive to keep expenditures in line with revenues while not jeopardizing opportunities for student learning. We have been prudent in our budgeting, have been good stewards of the money we are provided, and have made some very difficult decisions to reduce employee expenditures through the contracting of services.
I hope you have the opportunity to participate in some of the great year end activities our schools have planned, and if you happen to see me at one of these events, I hope you will stop and say hello.
Sincerely,
Robert Shaner, Ph.D.
Superintendent
248-726-3100