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Cost Containment Plan for Macomb Schools

The workforce will be a bit smaller in the Macomb School District next fall as a result of budget cuts.

The equivalent of three full-time positions will be eliminated as part of what the district is calling a “cost containment” plan, which the Board of Education approved during its March meeting.

Superintendent Alene Resuchel said the district will also dip into its reserves to balance its budget, but she said it is not sustainable in the long-term to rely solely on reserves.

“(If) you start deficit spending, you can take it out of your piggy bank but then the piggy bank becomes empty after a time. So we have to stop that,” Reuschel said.

Reuschel hoped the staff reductions could be achieved through retirements and attrition. The school board will decide next month which positions will be impacted.

Reuschel said the district is seeking savings of $330,000 for next school year. Other cuts will come from the athletics program and the board’s travel budget.  

She said the district is taking into consideration the possibility state funding will return to the level it was at in 2008, and that pension funding obligations might be shifted to local governments, including school districts.

Reuschel has also drafted a plan to save $1.5 million over the next five years. She hoped the entire community will come together to help complete the plan.

“Putting our collective heads together, revisiting that which we think is important, and prioritizing so that … we come together and collectively work together to come to a plan that allows us to maintain the quality of education that we have at a reasonable level of expense,” Reuschel said.

Rich is TSPR's News Director.