Board Approves 2011-12 Budget

The Dearborn Board of Education approved a budget for the 2011-12 school year at their June 27 meeting. The plan includes reductions in spending to eliminate a $3 million difference between projected revenue and projected expenses for the upcoming fiscal year beginning July 1.

The Board of Education, Superintendent, Cabinet, engineers, and all non-instructional and instructional staff have agreed to wage concessions in order to save jobs and lessen the impact of the funding crisis totaling around $18 million or about $1,000 per student. Also helping to ease the budget problem was a landmark contract agreement between the Board of Education and the Dearborn Federation of Teachers that gives DFT members full control of their health plan and saves the district approximately $4 million.

"Despite funding shortfalls, staff members continue to work tirelessly and remain committed to providing a quality education to each student", commented Dearborn Public Schools Superintendent Mr. Brian Whiston.

Unfortunately the elimination of over $7 million dollars in state and federal funding will impact jobs.

Dearborn is one of only two districts losing 31a funds that total $4.9 million for Dearborn schools. The District also qualifies for additional federal funding through a Title 1 grant which provides financial assistance to schools based on economic need. Title 1 reductions and other requirements resulted in nearly a $2 million change in available Title 1 funds. Additionally, the district is losing more than $400,000 in bilingual education funds.

"None of us want to eliminate jobs, cut pay, reduce staff or provide less service to students and for the past eight years, our entire staff has worked to minimize the impact that these funding problems have had on our classrooms", Whiston added.

The district is waiting to see if Dearborn meets the State's five criteria for "Best Practices" in order to receive an additional $100 per student. If approved for the additional funds the money will be used to bring back some teachers and minimize the concessions taken by other staff.