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July 17, 2003Aid bill may kill districts' mergerSchools may again delay electionByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - A plan to annex Northport Public Schools to the larger Traverse City school district encountered a major set-back Wednesday, as the state House approved a school aid bill that severely limits the financial incentive for such mergers. The House's state aid bill passed Wednesday would likely stop a Sept. 8 annexation election, Northport superintendent Richard Cross said. Cross said his district will dissolve in three years unless it receives help. So far, the most promising aid offer has been Traverse City's proposal to annex the 275-student district. Under the current law, an annexation with Northport would bring in an additional $14 million for Traverse City Area Public Schools. A new law would make annexation a losing proposition, Cross said. "I can't see how that could be anything that Traverse City would want to consider," he said. "It would actually end up costing money when you look at other factors." Traverse City receives $6,700 for each of its 11,000 students while Northport receives about $9,000 per pupil. The current law allows merging districts to take the higher of the two foundation allowances plus $50, or $8,000, whichever is less. The proposed law pays for a pupil-weighted average of the merging districts with no additional per pupil dollar amount. That figure remains unclear, but school officials and area legislators say it isn't enough. Rep. Howard Walker, R-Traverse City, said he isn't happy with the final version. "I am very disappointed that it looks like we have not received the incentive dollars that were originally provided under statute or even a worthy compromise," he said. "I think there was positive sentiment for our initiative, but this was a bad year budget-wise." Traverse City superintendent James Pavelka on Wednesday awaited word out of the state Senate, where lawmakers worked to complete business before the summer recess. Last month, the Senate approved a school aid bill that provides the same per-pupil funding plan the House approved Wednesday. "From Traverse City's perspective, we are going to do everything we can to cooperate with Northport," he said. Cross said he plans to meet with his board of education and also talk with Traverse City officials before pulling out of the September election. The election has already been postponed several times while the districts awaited final word from the state on the budget language. Cross said he will likely recommend that Northport again postpone the election instead of walking away. "If we get knocked down this year, we have to get up and keep trying, because the issue won't go away," he said. "Nothing else is going to work for Northport."
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