COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Major budget problems for the State of Michigan due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of revenue is reflected in the amended budgets for 2019-2020 and the budgets for 2020-2021 that were passed by the Coldwater Community Schools Board of Education Monday night.
Coldwater Community Schools Superintendent Terry Ann Whelan said the amended budget for the fiscal year that ends Tuesday shows a reduction of $650 per student from the state while the 20-21 budget shows a reduction of $500 per student.
Whelan says a big unknown is how many students will come back in the fall so she has projected a 75 student loss in this years budget.
The kindergarten numbers are low right now. After there were 234 kindergarteners last year but this year there are only 160.
The amended budget for 2019-2020 has a deficit of over $1-point-1 million. Whelan estimated they would have been $500,000 to the good if they did not have the per pupil reduction.
With the amended budget in the red, the district has to dip into its fund equity which will leave it at 18-and-a-half percent.
With the 2020-2021 budget showing an estimated state reduction of $500 per student and the projected loss of 75 students, it’s the district expenditures will top revenue by nearly $1-point-4 million. Whelan estimated the fund equity will be down to 12-point-seven percent next year.
She said it was a challenge to put the budgets together because they have no idea from the state what is really going to happen. But Whelan added that thanks to its fund equity balance, the Coldwater district was in better shape than most school districts in Michigan.
