01/16/2007

Funding change could help relieve Glen Lake budget

By Christine Finger

cfinger@record-eagle.com

GLEN LAKE — A change in the way Glen Lake Community Schools is funded could offer a reprieve from a steep budget deficit.

With student numbers on the decline, Superintendent Joan Groening said she expects the district will go "out of formula” for the 2006-2007 school year and rely on non-homestead property tax revenues rather than per-pupil payments from the state.

School districts are considered out of formula when the amount of taxes collected locally on non-homestead properties exceeds the total amount of funding the district would receive based on the state's per-pupil foundation allowance.

The shift would help reduce a projected budget deficit of $185,000 this year to about $85,000. The district's foundation grant is $7,245 per student. This year's enrollment is 806 students, down from 950 students during the 2000-2001 school year.

Groening said being out of formula would insulate Glen Lake from some uncertainties, like the potential mid-year funding cut facing most school districts.

"It's good in the event that they take $200 per student back,” she said.

But there's no guarantee the district's status won't change again in future years if its student count rebounds.

"We still consider it a very precarious position,” Groening said. "We have to be very conservative in our movement forward. We have to continue to try to make the school as strong as possible and continue to attract students.”

Glen Lake would be the second Leelanau County school district, along with Northport Public School, to rely on local non-homestead taxes. About 30 percent of land in the Glen Lake district is no longer on the tax roll as part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the value of surrounding properties, many of them non-homestead, has increased.

The situation is a trade-off of sorts, said school board president Joan Hawley. The district has more money to spend, but if enrollment declines too far there won't be enough students to support its programs.

"It's good now because it gives us that financial edge,” she said. "But if we keep losing students, it could be bad for us.”