Traverse City Record-Eagle

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July 19, 2010

Cuts in TCAPS budget may be smaller

HR: 'We're in significant budget-challenging times'

BY LINDSAY VANHULLE lvanhulle@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Finances are rosier for Traverse City's public schools than they were this winter, when school board members passed budget cuts for the upcoming year.

To be sure, the district budgeted a $4.2 million deficit, and the Legislature did not give schools enough funding for 2010-11 to reverse last year's $165 per-student cut.

But lawmakers didn't take more, and the state's School Aid Fund has a surplus that has yet to be spent.

Some employees, preparing for contract negotiations in which they will be asked for concessions, think it's time the board amends the reductions.

For now, the target of $6.1 million — including about $3 million from compensation — still has a green light, though the idea of adjusting it has entered the central office.

"It is a reasonable question to ask, and it is something we are investigating," said Paul Soma, chief financial officer. "How we go about dealing with that is still under discussion."

Compensation is the largest line item, and the only piece not included in the budget adopted last month. All six employee unions will renegotiate contracts.

One already has. A two-year deal for maintenance and custodial employees was approved last week.

The agreement with the 89-member local unit of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Michigan Council 25 includes a salary freeze and increased health costs.

It also removes weekend overtime pay, which was offered regardless of whether employees worked more than 40 hours.

The contract is expected to save $173,000 both years, said Cindy Berck, human resources director, who works with support staff.

"This is what it is," Berck said. "We're in significant budget-challenging times."

Both sides said the process, which began in March, mostly was smooth.

"We didn't agree on everything, but that's why you have discussions," said Lori Jacobson, a custodian at Central High School and AFSCME president. "All in all, it was handled quite adult."

Support employees across Michigan have worried about retaining their jobs given the strain on district budgets. Mount Pleasant's school board, for one, voted in June to privatize custodians.

Traverse City's board will transfer special education busing to the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District, which contracts with Lansing-based Dean Transportation Inc.

"There's outsourcing going on all over," said Duane Hunt, staff representative for Michigan Council 25. "Hopefully, we can avert any layoffs and the cuts that we made will be sufficient."

The board's reduction target was based on a projected shortfall of at least $7.7 million in January, when schools anticipated a $268 per-student cut this fall.

Instead, $11 was added.

Soma said that same projection today would be closer to $4.7 million.

The district's budget deficit could be reduced to near-balanced if the existing compensation goal is met.

Better financial news means the cuts are now too high, said Mary McGee-Cullen, interim president of the Traverse City Education Association.

"It's not as bad as they thought it was," she said.

Other groups agree, said Don Hakala, UniServ director for the Michigan Education Association, who represents TCEA, clerical employees and bus drivers.

The board is more confident in the state picture, President Marjie Rich said, but hard times aren't over.

"We have to be fiscally responsible, and we also have to be fair," she said. "At this point, though, we're moving forward with our plan."

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