Leland Public School will look within for someone to serve as an assistant principal in an administrative realignment next school year.

I would be in charge of a portion of the (teacher) evaluations and discipline. The assistant principal would serve as a back-up for discipline, student testing and professional learning communities.
—Mike Hartigan,
Leland School superintendent

The Board of Education Monday night authorized Superintendent Mike Hartigan to post an opening for the assistant principal’s position at the school. Under the plan, which was recommended by the board’s personnel committee in the wake of Principal Terry Breen’s resignation last month, Hartigan would share responsibilities with the assistant principal.

Breen said part of his decision to leave the district, where he has served as principal for the past eight years, was the possibility of an administrative shake-up resulting from budget constraints in 2008-2009.

Although no formal job description has been written, Hartigan said he would assume some of the duties now performed by Breen.

“I would be in charge of a portion of the (teacher) evaluations and discipline,” Hartigan said. “The assistant principal would serve as a back-up for discipline, student testing and professional learning communities.”

The superintendent said there are many people on the staff qualified for the position. Interview committees comprised of two board members, two staff members and one parent are expected to interview applicants after spring break next month.

“We’ll work next month on how we’ll figure this position into the budget,” Hartigan said.

Hartigan will earn $100,000 this school year, while Breen’s current salary is $82,374.

Budget talks occupied a short portion of Monday’s monthly meeting.

“The state funding outlook appears as if it will be a political football,” Hartigan said.

Based on budget projections discussed in Lansing, the school’s chief administrator figured on an increase of $125 per student for the 2008-09 school year, which would bring the district’s per-pupil allowance to $8,313. Based on what Hartigan called a “conservative” enrollment projection of 495 and the per-pupil allowance, state revenue for the coming school year was projected at $4.1. An additional $25,880 in revenue from federal Title I funding and an anticipated fund balance of $378,611 from this year would bring the total money available to $4,913,024.

The story coming out of Lansing this week is that the per-pupil increase will likely be between $70 to $140 per student. The smaller the increase, the more likely it is the district will have to tap its fund balance.

Since the 1999-2000 school year, Leland has been able to forgo extensive program cuts by tapping into its reserves. Nine years ago, the district’s fund balance was $545,243 and represented 16.64 percent of expenditures. The fund balance is expected to drop to 8 percent of expenses by the end of the current school year. Just last month, the school projected the fund balance would drop to 4.56 percent by June.

“It’s infuriating,” Hartigan said of the funding issue and what he called an inequity among state schools. Of particular concern to many districts throughout the state are “20J” payments to many downstate districts that are already among the best financed in Michigan.

Based on the financial picture, the board is going to the public in May with a request for a $600,000 bond issue for the purchase of buses, technology and classroom equipment — expenses that can not be covered by the district’s general fund. The .25 mill tax will be sought for five years.