Dear Saline Area Schools Parents,

 

A number of you have called or written me regarding your concerns about school transportation changes, and class size.  I wish to address each of these with you briefly.

 

Bus Stop Concerns:

 

Many of you recently received the transportation postcards indicating your 2007-08 bus stops.  At this time, there are fewer bus stops scheduled for 2007-08 school year. Let me explain how this came to be.

 

The Board and administration met several times last spring to discuss the pending shortfall in the funding of public education by the Michigan Legislature. If you recall from previous Superintendent comments and postings, our funding from the State of Michigan was in serious jeopardy and as of today cannot be relied upon.  The challenge the district faces is that we are expected to provide the same educational programs and services as last year--with less money. 

 

Quite honestly, we--like virtually all other public school districts in Michigan--can no longer afford the same level of support services as we provided just last year with today's available funds.  Our first priority was, and is, and shall remain, teaching and learning in the classroom, with appropriate class size maximums. The Board's expectation was a balanced budget for 2007-08.  Several discussions took place on various topics with Transportation services being one of them.

 

This is the first serious reduction of services the Transportation Department has had to make in recent years.  When we discussed rerouting options with the Board last spring, we considered many possibilities, including eliminating high school bus service; reducing noon runs for Kindergarten; reducing the number of bus stops; eliminating transportation for weekend activities and fieldtrips, and many more.  The Board direction was to continue to provide transportation services to all students but at a lesser scope. 

State law regarding transportation is governed by THE REVISED SCHOOL CODE Act 451 of 1976, which states:  

(2) Transportation provided under subsection (1) shall be without charge to the resident pupil, the parent, guardian, or person standing in loco parentis to the pupil.

(3) A school district is not required to transport or pay for transportation of a resident pupil living within 1-1/2 miles, by the nearest traveled route, to the public or state   approved nonpublic school in which the pupil is enrolled ... 

This and many other frequently asked questions can be found at the following link.

http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-6530_6569-33848--,00.html

Since no law specifies the maximum distance a student may walk to the bus stop, and since we have always considered that 1-1/2 miles is too great a distance for any student to have to walk to school, we have established our own Saline Transportation Guidelines.

The Saline Area Schools transportation guidelines state that transportation service shall be provided for all students in grades K-4 who live more than  ½ mile from school, and for all students in grades 5-12 who live more than over one mile from school.  This was reviewed and confirmed in Board discussions last spring.

The board's focus and expectation is that we prioritize funding in the classroom.  Therefore, the Transportation Department has decreased the number of stops within the district boundaries to save over $50,000.  The Transportation Department will still deliver service to all taking safety and economical issues into consideration. 

 

Individual requests should be forwarded to the Transportation Department at 734-429-8067 or to Thomas Wall, Assistant Superintendent at 734-429-8004.  Your patience and understanding under our current funding is appreciated. We are reexamining all routes, and reconsidering all possibilities to assure efficiency and maximize savings, with the least disruption of service.  You will hear from us as we review your concerns. Thank you for your time regarding this issue.

 

 

Class Size Concerns

 

One of the greatest challenges faced by every school district is figuring out the correct staffing level for all grades in all schools in the district. By definition, staffing decisions are made based on student enrollment.  Given that each teacher brings a fixed cost of approximately $65-70,000 including benefits, very careful analysis of actual students expected or actually appearing in classes, must be made.

 

This past year has been very difficult for our school district.  As you know, we lost many, many wonderful families who were with Pfizer, and who chose to remain with the company out-of-state.  We estimated the loss in student count, and built that into our budget planning process.  In past years, with one exception, the district's estimation process has been remarkably accurate.  Alas, we are living in different times, with great instability in the state, and in our district in particular.  So many Pfizer families expressly moved to Saline in order to enjoy our schools.  With their leaving, we lost approximately $7400 per student, which we estimated to total a little more than $500,000.

 

Each day brings us more accurate data.  We see--as of this moment--that some classes are larger than we expected, while some are holding well. According to the latest figures, we are as of today 73 students below last year's enrollment.  The admission of a total of 19 School of Choice students brought in approximately $150,000, and led to the hiring of 2.5 additional teachers.

 

I know that at this moment some classes are very large.  I want to assure you that I am carefully monitoring every change in student enrollment in every school, on a daily basis.  When I arrived in the district, and frequently during the last school year, I promised you that the highest priority of the school district is TEACHING AND LEARNING, which means quality education in the classroom, which means reasonable class size.  I do NOT consider elementary classes, especially in the early grades, that total  in the very high 20's or 30's to be appropriate class sizes for effective instruction. 

 

I wish to assure you that we will make changes and add teaching staff as the actual numbers confirm the presence of all students.  My colleagues speak of not adjusting "until we see the whites of their eyes".  They know the costs that can be incurred, and must be paid throughout an entire school year, once a teacher's contract is signed.

 

Please be patient as we seek to address this most important issue.  We are particularly committed to maintaining our focus on our top priority, and to making other budgetary adjustments as needed to keep our promise to you.

 

If I may be of additional assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me. I may be reached by email or by phone directly at 734.429.8001.

 

Yours truly,

 

Beverley B. Geltner, MBA, PhD., Superintendent

Saline Area Schools

200 North Ann Arbor Street

Saline, MI 48176

phone:  734.429.8001

fax:       734.429.8028

email:    geltnerb@saline.k12.mi.us