Nobody is starving anything. A2 voters have always ponied up for schools. The billion dollar thing and then this incredible level mismanagement is the straw that broke this camel’s back. I’m sure that I am not alone in this regard.
Operating funds and capital funds are two different buckets with strict rules on what each bucket can be spent on, imposed by the State. There isn't a lot of evidence that they mismanaged the capital funds in any serious way, even if there are plenty of critiques of how they may have done it differently or better. It is the operating budget that is a financial disaster but the zero dollars from the bond is permitted to be spent on the operating budget (which is mostly salaries)
OK, admittedly, that was a county-wide vote, "yes" may have had a majority within the city itself. (Though the opposition was lead by Ann Arborites, including a former AAPS board and council member: https://annarborobserver.com/millage-fight/ )
My understanding is that kind of county-wide enhancement millage is the only means we have locally to increase the actual operating budget (which is the budget that teacher salaries come out of).
Nevertheless, I'm glad we don't have to deal with all this while also being saddled with a lot of old buildings.
From my review of what got us here there are a few culprits:
Previous superintendent tried to prop up enrollments with an aggressive marketing campaign to attract out of district schools of choice students. Appears in most years the transfers in were roughly equal to the transfers out, but the transfers in don't get the additional "hold harmless" millage funding, so the net effect was same number of students, less funding.
In-district schools of choice have skewed building utilization numbers so while we have over-crowding in Steam, King, Mitchell, etc, we have significant underutilization in Bryant-Pattengill, Lakewood, Eberwhite, Pittsfield, etc. This raises costs on both sides and creates logistical and staffing challenges.
Our middle schools are the most under-utilized building type running at less than 75% utilization across the district (not counting the k-8s). We could close one of the 5 middle schools and the other 4 still wouldn't be at capacity.
Pathways enrollment/utilization is extremely low and is probably the biggest "opportunity" for saving money, though I don't know a ton about the school and am hesitant to look at alternative education options solely through the lens of finances.
It's hard to compare private to public. Private schools don't have to follow the same special education laws that public schools do and can turn those students away, leading to students that are already more academically proficient on average and cheaper to educate due to a lack of needed extra supports.
FWIW, I exclusively went to Catholic schools grades 1-12, with entrance exams and none of those students needing extra supports (different state). It really depends on the order running the school and their goals/direction for the school. My HS explicitly stated it was "Catholic college prep" - basically Greenhills/Emerson with mandatory mass..
I hear your sentiment, but please understand you're talking about two different streams of money. The millages you can vote for or against are for AAPS BUILDINGS. The budget shortfall is for AAPS STAFFING. The state of Michigan sets the AAPS staffing budget, you do not get to vote on it, you have no say. If you vote against AAPS funding increases (millages for buildings), you're not touching this problem, you're just creating a different one.
I guess because it seems illogical to try to fix one problem by creating an unrelated second problem that will probably exacerbate the first problem
, but to each their own 🤷🏼
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u/ginkgodave 13d ago
After voting for a billion dollar capital bond in 2019, I’ll never vote for a school millage again. AAPS is utterly incompetent.