Look deeper into Monroe Public Schools' funding, enrollment, future plans

Yahoo

04-05-2025

— In an effort to reduce its general fund expenditures by approximately $2 million for the 2025-26 school year, recently cut 25 district staff positions and plans to implement other changes, including changes to custodial cleaning.
Andrew Shaw, MPS superintendent, said the efforts will help the district balance its budget and prevent it from having to spend more of its fund balance.
Here's what officials had to say:
The fund balance is essentially a district's savings fund. The balance fluctuates depending on the district's financial situation. According to slides presented during an April 28 financial update to staff, MPS expects to end this school year with $7,731,360 in fund balance. Shaw provided a recording of the call to The Monroe News.
MPS's total budget for this year is approximately $75 million.
'We are set to spend approximately $3 million out of fund balance this year. And, the last couple years, we've been spending out of fund balance,' Shaw told staff on the call. 'That $3 million, if we make no changes, would go to next year, and then next year, we'll still be in the same spot because we have pay increases and normal increases due to all expenses out there and inflation, and then we also budgeted for a student loss. So, that's another $2 million to $2.5 million loss. We'd be looking at $5 million more of expenditures verses revenue. It just continues to multiply itself."
'Our conservative estimate at the end of this year is $7.7 million, using $3 million fund balance. Continuing to use that much of our fund balance is not sustainable, so we have to look at how we can prevent that from continuing,' said Cassandra Shook, the district's executive director of business and finance.
"Our ultimate goal is a balanced budget," Shaw said.
Shaw said in pervious years, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund money helped with COVID-related issues, such as student achievement. It's federal money given to schools to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
'ESSER helped us with summer school, interventions and (upgrades to improve) air quality,' Shaw said.
'We've used those funds up. We don't have that additional funding anymore,' Shook said.
The State of Michigan provides school districts funds for every student each year. Shaw said the per pupil rate has been flat for two years.
'It sets the district behind. We get the same amount per pupil, but expenses go up because we have legacy costs with staff contracts and natural increases in the cost of items,' Shook said.
For 2025, Michigan gave a per-pupil allowance of $9,608. That was a zero increase from the previous year, Shaw said. He said for next school year, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republicans are discussing increasing the allotment by just over $400 per pupil.
'We're waiting on the Democrats for their number,' Shaw said. 'We fully expect that we'll see a nominal increase in our foundation this coming year. We need $600 a year (per pupil) just to break even. $400 is a big step in the right direction. With that, and changes we're making, we have the potential to get back to having a balanced budget."
He said the district is also waiting to hear about federal funding.
'The fed, we get a nice amount through title funds. What will that look like? It's hard to say where that's going to land,' Shaw said.
Shook and Shaw said declining enrollment is an issue for most schools in Michigan because of lower birth rates and families moving out of areas. Lower enrollment means less funding.
'This is the first year since 1942 with less than 100,000 live births in Michigan,' Shaw said. "It's a huge shift. These are numbers we're going to continue to watch.'
Shaw said the district budgets each year for a 150-student loss. Last year, MPS saw only an 80-student loss.
'The sinking fund is a beautiful gift the community has given to MPS. The sinking funds get used for a lot of projects. If we didn't have the sinking fund, those costs would have come out of the general fund,' Shaw said.
The current updates to Waterloo Elementary, for example, were funded by a bond and sinking funds.
Previous Coverage: 'Waterloo's coming back'
'The technology milage (part of the general fund) ... is a gift from the county. We have two gifts in our community that have a huge impact on what we can do," Shaw said.
Shaw said there is always a need to invest in the district, including buildings and staff.
'We have to always continue to move forward. All the work we've done since COVID, student achievement, behavior, social/emotional; we see all this great work that is happening. That work still must continue," he said. "We still have to invest in staff and programs. All the investment in professional development, if all of these great employees we have are not getting pay increases, they're going to another district. Then, it's all for not and it rolls us back. We have to continue to move forward."
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Shaw said the district is likely heading into some lean years.
'I wish that wasn't the case, but there are a lot of indictors. I would love to be wrong. I hope I am," he said. "We have to plan for what appears to be on the horizon.'
— Contact reporter Suzanne Nolan Wisler at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Look deeper into Monroe Public Schools' funding, enrollment, future plans