Bedford schools superintendent urges parents to write legislators as funding cuts loom

1/30/2013

TEMPERANCE - Bedford Public Schools interim Superintendent Jon White asked parents tonight to write their state legislators and urge them to restore funding to the district.

"We need more money," Mr. White told about 200 people who attended a town hall meeting in the high school auditorium.

During the meeting, Mr. White updated the audience on the status of the debt elimination plan the district submitted to the Michigan Department of Education. The three-year plan is designed to bring spending into alignment with revenue by the 2014-15 year.

However, Mr. White said the district may ask the state to extend the elimination plan for two more years because the current one is not keeping up with increasing costs and declining enrollment.

The district is projecting a nearly $900,000 defict at the end of the current school year.

The interim superintendent hinted that the board of education may be asked to look at closing a school building, increasing class sizes, making changes to the custodial staff, and eliminating jobs through attrition and retirement.

"We have to make hard decisions about what to do and we have to make them quickly," he said. "You cannot cut yourself into profitability. We need more money, and that is where your letter writing can come into play."