ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The Ann Arbor Public Schools Interim Superintendent gave notice to families in the district that the district must reduce $25 million from its budget for the next school year, which will come in the form of some layoffs.
A letter sent to the Ann Arbor community.
Interim Superintendent Jazz Parks sent a letter to the community of Ann Arbor sharing that the results of an audit from earlier in the year showed the district needed to make significant cuts.
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“According to the financial analysis, the district will need to cut approximately $25 million from the 2024-25 operating budget to comply with state and Board of Education requirements,” Parks said in the letter.
The district will undergo a financial analysis.
Jazz authorized a former Ann Arbor Public School (AAPS) Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, Marios Demetriou, to perform a district wide financial analysis according to the letter which identified some budget challenges.
According to the letter, “These challenges result from three main historical factors:
- Staff has increased by 480 in the last 10 years
- Student enrollment has decreased by 1,123 over the last 4 years
- Recent agreements with our staff, including well-deserved and well-earned raises for teachers and staff, approved by our Board of Education resulted in increased staffing costs”
What are the recommendations?
To provide some immediate cuts to costs, Parks mentioned that she authorized several actions including: reducing central office and administrative staff positions, freezing hiring, conducting in-depth reviews of all central office district and school budgets for efficiencies and cost savings, and renegotiating contracts with vendors to identify cost savings on contracted services.
While acknowledging the budget challenge, Parks vowed to continue working to understand the cause of the problem.
“Board of Education President Feaster has asked for – and I have continued – a full review of how this occurred so that this does not happen again,” Parks said in the letter, “While previous budget decisions were made before I became interim superintendent, I am fully committed to addressing them and working with our staff, students, families and the Board of Education to create an action plan to move us forward.”
Historical view at the Ann Arbor School District budgets.
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In the “Ann Arbor Public Schools 10 Year Comparisons” report prepared for the Board of Education a little over a week ago, the AAPS acknowledged similar budget findings and recommended staffing cuts.
“These reductions are necessary to begin to bring the district back to financial health and viability,” the report said.
During the 2014-15 school year, there were 1,647 employees and roughly 16,834 students. The district reached its peak number of students in 2019-20 with 17,961 students, but has since been falling, and in 2023-24 year there are currently 16,838 students and 2,127 employees.
“During the last ten years the district’s revenues increased by $104.5M and the district’s expenditures increased by $119M,” the report said, “$14.5M more than revenues.”
The report also acknowledged a historic pay and benefit increase which included a $13.1M increase for the 2023-24 school year.
Staffing comprises more than 80% of the district’s recurring operating costs according to the report.
The full report can be found here.
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