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Observer; 11/2/06
Topic Started: Nov 2 2006, 07:52 AM (1,794 Views)
fyi
Principal
CKlockner
Nov 2 2006, 08:54 AM
I seem to remember Mr. Freeman saying something about closing high schools because of LPS s financial situation? So here we are on the see saw. It was then it wasnt a finanacial decision to close 7 schools.
What is to be believed?

It was about $$$ before the enrollment loss.....

Now that they have lost a big chunk.....it really wasn't about the $$$$.

That's what the fund equity is for :blink: :blink: :blink:.......ooooooooops!!!!
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f11
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LPS, transportation for all
mikefromholland
Nov 2 2006, 09:07 AM
NFarquharson
Nov 2 2006, 07:52 AM
The loss can be attributed to the Legacy Initiative among other reasons, Liepa acknowledged. Some families have moved and others chose to attend private schools, he said.

So many parallels to the Holland situation 3 years ago that I don't have time to go into all of them now. So I've highlighted what I feel is the biggest CONTRAST to the Holland situation with the quote above.

Less than two months after implementation, your superintendent is publicly acknowledging that the reorganization contributed to enrollment loss. I never saw such a public statement by the Holland superintendent in the year following implementation prior to her resignation. It wasn't till June of the following year that any district people (it happened to be 2 board members) admitted publicly that the focus schools were contributing to the enrollment losses.

In order to solve a problem, it must be recognized. The fact that this is occurring in your community is a positive sign. The question now is whether the disparate groups will work together for a solution or point fingers at one another.

good point mike...they've admitted the mistake..now they need to fix it or go!
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f11
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LPS, transportation for all
"Would it be fair to say," Scheel asked, "no matter what plan we went with we would lose kids?"



Listen, we could have kept all the schools open and been
in better financial shape than we are today....this is unbelievable!!
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fyi
Principal
f11
Nov 2 2006, 09:09 AM
"Liepa said he didn't know when the figures were due. "I don't know what the deadline is," Liepa said. "It is usually around Nov. 1. That could mean Nov. 3 or it could mean Nov. 5."


This guy is a moron and needs to be fired, he has only hurt this district.

It is strange that he doesn't know when the deadline is......I'm not sure it was a good idea to acknowledge that fact in the paper.
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ILIkeLI
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Principal
Supt. Randy Liepa said the district uses a variety of factors in setting student count numbers. As for cuts, Liepa said, the district doesn't make mid-year cuts, in fact teacher contracts forbid layoffs after June 1.

"That's why you have a fund balance," he said. "We'd just as soon go to the fund balance to balance the budget in the middle of the year."


OK, who remember Lisa and the others saying just the opposite when it was suggested that the fund balance could help get the district through a year of study before ANY action or plan was taken? Remember how it was stated that the fund was already too low and that it should be kept at a particular level?
And now it's ok to use it to bail the district out of a decision that they knew they shouldn't have made?
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f11
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LPS, transportation for all
you mean like an actual study of how many people would leave?..they are not that good
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fyi
Principal
ILIkeLI
Nov 2 2006, 09:28 AM
Supt. Randy Liepa said the district uses a variety of factors in setting student count numbers. As for cuts, Liepa said, the district doesn't make mid-year cuts, in fact teacher contracts forbid layoffs after June 1.

"That's why you have a fund balance," he said. "We'd just as soon go to the fund balance to balance the budget in the middle of the year."


OK, who remember Lisa and the others saying just the opposite when it was suggested that the fund balance could help get the district through a year of study before ANY action or plan was taken?  Remember how it was stated that the fund was already too low and that it should be kept at a particular level? 
And now it's ok to use it to bail the district out of a decision that they new they shouldn't have made?

Yeah.....I thought the fund equity was something they dip into while waiting for their funds from the State. Isn't that is why we couldn't wait a year.....because they needed the funds to run the district. Does anyone remember when they get paid? What happens when they screw up? Seems like waiting a year would have cost the district less money....
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ILIkeLI
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Principal
"On the heels of an audit report a couple weeks ago, Livonia resident Maggie Fehr asked about the district's enrollment estimates used for budgeting, and how losing more students than expected might lead to budget cuts."

Do you sense some concern coming from supporters?
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f11
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LPS, transportation for all
ILIkeLI
Nov 2 2006, 09:34 AM
"On the heels of an audit report a couple weeks ago, Livonia resident Maggie Fehr asked about the district's enrollment estimates used for budgeting, and how losing more students than expected might lead to budget cuts."

Do you sense some concern coming from supporters?

Well Randy must have really served up the kool-aid, cause she came here
touting the 400 less kindergartners as the "big" problem
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ILIkeLI
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fyi
Nov 2 2006, 09:31 AM
ILIkeLI
Nov 2 2006, 09:28 AM
Supt. Randy Liepa said the district uses a variety of factors in setting student count numbers. As for cuts, Liepa said, the district doesn't make mid-year cuts, in fact teacher contracts forbid layoffs after June 1.

"That's why you have a fund balance," he said. "We'd just as soon go to the fund balance to balance the budget in the middle of the year."


OK, who remember Lisa and the others saying just the opposite when it was suggested that the fund balance could help get the district through a year of study before ANY action or plan was taken?  Remember how it was stated that the fund was already too low and that it should be kept at a particular level? 
And now it's ok to use it to bail the district out of a decision that they new they shouldn't have made?

Yeah.....I thought the fund equity was something they dip into while waiting for their funds from the State. That is why we couldn't wait a year because they needed the funds to run the district. Does anyone remember when they get paid?
What happens when they screw up? Seems like waiting a year would have cost the district less money....

EXACTLY! They have been caught in talking out of both sides of their mouths so many times. I don't get how supporters can continue to back them up. Pre-LI, "the fund equity can't be touched" Post-LI, "we can always use the fund equity to bail us out"
This is pure politics. Come on supporters, it can't be any clearer than this.
We really need to get a list or better yet, video of all of Liepa's crews various contradictory statements.
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Administrator
Administrator
NFarquharson
Nov 2 2006, 08:52 AM


On Wednesday, Supt. Randy Liepa said he didn't have complete results of the district's "fourth Wednesday" attendance record, which was taken five weeks earlier. He estimated the student loss at over 400.


The loss will be at least 453. It may be more, but we may never know for sure.

453 x 8490 = $3,845,970. Almost 3.9 million dollars a year lost. 3.9 million dollars is just about the cost of what it takes to run 6 elementary schools.
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Momforone
Principal
"The loss can be attributed to the Legacy Initiative among other reasons, Liepa acknowledged. Some families have moved and others chose to attend private schools, he said.

LPS will try to track families who have left the district.

"We're going to try to do that, but people come and they go," Liepa said. Follow-up or "exit interviews" with families who withdraw from a district are not typical. "We do get requests (from other schools) for student records," he said."

Liepa is talking out both sides of his mouth. I was @ the meeting on Monday and ask him specifically if he was going to survey the community and he stated NO. I looked @ him and said why wouldn't you?

Common Randy, which one is it.
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livoniamom
Principal
Good luck trying to sell a house in Livonia now. Livonia is going to earn a reputation of being a place that people are leaving to avoid the schools, not moving to. Especially when enrollment is up in neighboring districts (sign of a thriving school district).
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mstobier
Principal
This is absurd! I am not the even an employee of LPS, and I KNEW when the deadline was! How can the head of it claim to not know??? A big part of me wants to think that he is lying, but maybe he really is just that stupid.

What makes me even angrier is the statement about not moving forward with the LI if there was a "chance" it wouldn't work! Come on now, nothing is foolproof, of course there is a change. Even if they didn't get the huge uproar about it, there was a chance. I happen to think it's not working very well at all.
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Pete
Principal
NFarquharson
Nov 2 2006, 07:52 AM
http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...qSTA9a8TbSzI%3D

LPS misses enrollment count deadline
District receives extension as student numbers decline
BY REBECCA JONES
STAFF WRITER

The report was due Nov. 1, but Livonia Public Schools didn't have its research done, district officials said.

Instead, administrators plan to have 2006-07 enrollment figures ready in time for Monday's school board meeting.

The student count is important because it determines how much money the district will get in state aid. This year, it also gives taxpayers insight about how the district's Legacy Initiative is shaping up in its first year.

On Wednesday, Supt. Randy Liepa said he didn't have complete results of the district's "fourth Wednesday" attendance record, which was taken five weeks earlier. He estimated the student loss at over 400.

Figures were due to the intermediate school district by Nov. 1. "We've asked for a couple of days extension," he said.

"It's definitely going to be over a 2 percent reduction," Liepa said. "We knew we would lose students this year, and we lost more than we thought." The district collects $8,490 per pupil from the state for each full-time student. A 2.5 percent loss would be about 425 students -- or $3.6 million -- based on last year's estimate of 17,000 K-12 students.

Liepa said any shortfall in the district's budget would be covered by its fund equity, which stood at $10.9 million as of June 30. LPS typically doesn't adjust its budget mid-year, he said.

Enrollment patterns have not caused any shifts in the number of classrooms or teachers needed at any grade level since school began, Liepa said.

During a board meeting Oct. 16, Trustee Tom Bailey said that it had already been "a number of weeks" since the count was taken. "At this time I'm disappointed," Bailey said. "It's probably a little bit too long ... I just wish we had been on top of this a little bit better."

Liepa said this week that the report is not taking longer than usual this year. However, he said: "In any other year it's not as sensitive as it is this year."

"There's some finalization that occurs in (figuring enrollment for) special education and shared time programs," he said. "That's what takes a while."

Liepa said he didn't know when the figures were due. "I don't know what the deadline is," Liepa said. "It is usually around Nov. 1. That could mean Nov. 3 or it could mean Nov. 5."

Last year, the district decided to close seven schools, reconfigure grades of elementary schools and save money under a plan called the Legacy Initiative. Officials had predicted a $1.8 million savings this year. However, actual enrollment figures could affect that amount.

The loss can be attributed to the Legacy Initiative among other reasons, Liepa acknowledged. Some families have moved and others chose to attend private schools, he said.

LPS will try to track families who have left the district.

"We're going to try to do that, but people come and they go," Liepa said. Follow-up or "exit interviews" with families who withdraw from a district are not typical. "We do get requests (from other schools) for student records," he said.

LPS was among the majority of Wayne County districts that had not submitted enrollment projections as of Nov. 1, said Beverly Finlayson, manager of student accounting and auditing for the Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency.

"I allow them a little leeway," Finlayson said. Because Wayne County districts are big, she said, "if they're experiencing difficulty, we give them a break."

The intermediate school district has until Nov. 15 to submit its reports to the state.

"That's the bottom-line deadline," Finlayson said. If the state hasn't received the figures by then, it has the authority to withhold funding. "We always make the Nov. 15 deadline."

Staff writer Dave Varga contributed to this story.
rrjones@hometownlife.com | (734) 953-2054

Originally published November 2, 2006

Good. The Observer printed this but it's hardly enough. I would expect from the Observer some harder hitting headlines, such as what they've given to LPS.

The community deserves A LOT more fair print on this subject and we will be watching to see if this happens.
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