The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Superintendent addresses revenue ideas
Geltner says some implemented, while others impractical
By Brian Cox, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 18, 2007
At the Saline school board meeting Jan. 9, Superintendent Beverley Geltner met head-on recurring charges that top administrators have not given serious consideration to a litany of suggestions from teachers and staff on how the financially-strapped district might raise revenue or reduce expenses.
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"Every suggestion we receive is addressed," Geltner assured the board before proceeding for nearly a half-hour while reading from a memo that outlined her responses to 42 ideas for raising money and 17 cost-cutting proposals.
Some suggestions, she said, were being implemented, others remained under consideration, and still others were impractical, illegal or ineffective.
Geltner presented her memo less than one month after outraged teachers protested layoffs and decried the lack of attention given the revenue and cost-savings suggestions that were compiled and submitted in November.
Among the 59 ideas detailed in the memo were:
•Increasing student parking fees. Geltner said it would be discussed with the high school administration and considered for the 2007-08 school year.
•Rent school property to cellphone companies. Geltner wrote the idea was not feasible because school property is not located where cellphone companies want to install towers.
•Sell some school property. Geltner wrote that the school-owned property at Michigan Avenue and Industrial Drive is not zoned for commercial or industrial use and that there are concerns about the availability of water and sewer to the site. Multiple conversations with potential buyers, she wrote, indicated interest, but a need for extensive legal action before the site could be developed and sold.
•Eliminate the "team" concept at the middle school. Geltner said the idea that teaming in the middle school is more expensive than other models in the district is a "famous myth." "The elimination of teaming would not reduce the number of teachers required," she wrote, "as the current (Saline Education Association) contract mandates a 300-minute teaching limit for each teacher."
•Reduce central office administrative staff as district is way too "top heavy." Geltner said the central office supervisory and administrative staff has been decreased from 10.5 full-time positions in 2001 to five in 2006-07 for a total reduction of 52 percent. "These reductions were made as the district grew in terms of number of students, staff and buildings, and as state and federal reporting and monitoring requirements have annually increased and changed," she wrote.
•Pay-to-ride-the-bus program. Geltner said the idea was illegal, according to state law.
Some of the 17 cost-saving measures addressed in Geltner's memo included:
•Offer a teacher buyout. The district is currently in the second year of a three-year buyout, Geltner wrote. Buyouts sometimes provide a short-term savings, but ultimately cost more.
•Discontinue practice of paying for central administrators' automobiles. The district, responded Geltner, does not pay for central administrators' vehicles. "An auto stipend is common in administrative contracts as a way of keeping part of the administrator's salary off schedule," which means the money does not factor into a raise or qualify for the Michigan Public School Employee Retirement benefit. Geltner said the auto stipend actually reduces cost to the district.
•Consider eliminating the highest paying jobs in the district. Geltner said that of the top 10 highest-paid positions in the district, several are held by administrators and several by teachers. She said the SEA contract requires teachers with the least seniority be laid off first and that administrators have already undergone a 15 percent reduction.
Geltner's full eight-page memo is available on the school's Web site at www.salineschools.com.
Geltner said after the meeting that she read the memo in full to demonstrate publicly her cabinet's careful consideration of any suggestions they receive. She said she further intended to provide a comprehensive response to proposals submitted by the Long-Range Planning Committee, a community-based committee formed in August 2004 to study the district's building usage, grade configuration and revenue-raising avenues.
The LRPC submitted its recommendations in late March 2005, but many who served on various subcommittees have complained that the district never fully addressed the options proposed.
Geltner said she intended to rectify that concern.
"We are living in challenging financial times," she said, "but I think we're stepping up to the plate."
Staff Writer Brian Cox can be reached at 429-7380 or bcox@heritage.com.
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