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Westland Observer; 11/16/06
Topic Started: Nov 19 2006, 09:45 PM (421 Views)
NFarquharson
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http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...684/1213/NEWS24

LPS budget surplus info comes too late


We needed this financial information a year ago.

With it, the past year might have been different. The decision to close schools, the community divisions, the recall elections all might not have happened. After all, it's hard to believe the Livonia Public Schools school board would have gone ahead with this Legacy Inititative in the face of such a strong opposition and knowing about the soon-to-be improved financial picture.

The LPS 2006 audit shows the district's fund balance had $10.9 million on June 30, which is some $3.2 million more than budgeted for that date during the previous year. Yes, the fund balance is still only a somewhat low 7 percent of the district's budget, but that $3.2 million is a big difference in light of what's happened this year.

The district could have boosted its fund equity by a lesser amount and planned to spend some of that larger fund equity to make up the $1.8 million that was supposed to be saved this first year under the Legacy Initiative, the controversial plan to close seven schools, reconfigure school grades and improve the system for the long term.

The point of this Legacy Initiative was to save money in both the short and long term. Certainly there were some specific educational improvements behind it, but the main issue was money and this recent audit shows that the delay and restudy that was desired by most of the anti-Legacy crowd would have not harmed the district's bottom line.

And now that Livonia's student count has finally been released, showing a loss of about 500 students this school year, the predictions of many of those opponents from last year have come true: The loss of students -- most likely due in large part to this plan -- has cost the district much more revenue than it had ever hoped to save in the first year.

There has also been money spent on building improvements, buses and a fund balance over $6 million in the district's special education fund.

Hindsight can often be 20-20. And this improved fund equity will only be temporary, since the district is going to need to use it to make up for the loss of $8,490 per student based on the decline this year.

However, for the longer term, it's important for district leaders to recognize that this fall-off of students may not end this year, as there is still a lot of dissatisfaction out there. This Legacy plan still needs close examination and review as it progresses. And the district needs to find ways to renew the confidence of many of its customers.

Originally published November 16, 2006
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my_kids_mom
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Is this the same EXACT article that was in the Livonia Observer a few weeks ago? For some reason it sounds more dire. Maybe it's my imagination.
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NFarquharson
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I don't think so, since it mentions the student count has been released. I could not find the same article in the recent Livonia Observers.
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Mrs.M
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This is the same editorial by Dave Varga that was in the November 9th Livonia Observer. It's possible the Observer realized they didn't run it in the Westland Observer and should have since there are a fair amount of Westland residents within LPS boundaries.

I wonder what percentage of the city's area is in the LPS district...
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2 kids
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Most areas of Westland north of Warren Road are in LPS. Looking at the map, it looks like about 10-15% of Westland is LPS. Enough to warrant timely articles in the Westland Observer as well.
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ForMySons
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The Westland Observer takes turns between reporting Wayne Westland School District News and LPS news in the front section. We usually get LPS news later than than the Livonia Edition. As far as I can tell, the articles tend to get updated if more info has been unconvered.
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Mrs.M
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In defense of the Observer, there were major issues much more pertinent to the City of Westland than the enrollment count in LPS. This is the editorial that ran in Westland on November 9

Mayor drops ball on park problem


There are similarities between the former Cooper School site and Central City Park. Both are in Westland, both are former dump sites and both are contaminated sites.

It's the difference in the response to the problems that concerns us. When the contamination was found at Cooper School, the Livonia Public Schools moved students, shuttered the building and fenced off the 37-acre site. Fifteen years later, the land is just now being remediated for redevelopment.

Central City Park is now closed. Mayor Sandra Cicirelli said it's temporary and precautionary, so more testing can be done and a remediation plan developed. She also has stated, in a newspaper interview, she became aware of the problem earlier this year and would have closed the park had someone told her to do that.

We don't buy that explanation. As mayor of the city, she is responsible for the health and safety of the residents. Even if it was just this year that she found out about the contamination -- which we find highly unlikely since, during her time in office, Wayne County (which owns the land, which the city leases for park space) has filed at least four plans with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to clean up the site -- why did she wait until now, just days before the newspaper article was published?

The mayor has shown strong leadership in getting the Cooper School site cleaned up and on the track for redevelopment, but we believe she dropped the ball on Central City Park. It would have been better to be proactive on behalf of the adults and children who frequent the park than wait for someone to tell her to close it. We also believe that she should have made her decision known immediately to the city council and to residents. She is cable-TV savvy and could have used it as a means of getting the word out. As it stands, the signs around the park are a milquetoast announcement in comparison to the contamination problem.

Now that the problem is public, we hope the mayor and council will take the steps necessary to secure the park property and press Wayne County and the MDEQ for a quick resolution. Central City Park is the city's premier recreation site. It needs to be fixed and fixed quickly.
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Want2move
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NFarquharson
Nov 19 2006, 09:45 PM
Hindsight can often be 20-20. And this improved fund equity will only be temporary, since the district is going to need to use it to make up for the loss of $8,490 per student based on the decline this year.


It doesn't speak well for LPS when so many had the 20-20 foresight to recognize this would happen.

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