WESTLAND, Mich. – Parents have a chance to get some answers about the recent surprising discovery of a drop in the budget of Wayne-Westland Community Schools.
Local 4 visited John Glenn High School in Westland on Monday (Dec. 18), where they’re less than an hour from the first board meeting since that discovery was made.
The district says it is not a matter of missing money; instead, there were budgeting issues that resulted in that shortfall. As a result, 20 positions within the district were eliminated.
Wayne-Westland community schools say there were two things that contributed to the surprise decrease in their fund balance.
The first, in the amount of $8.4 million, was related to retirement services.
“Unfortunately, while the revenue was budgeting, the corresponding expenditures were not creating a misleading appearance of a higher fund balance,” said Wayne-Westland Community Schools Chief Financial Officer Julie Campbell.
The second budgeting challenge, as they call it, arose from various factors like bonuses, salary increases, and an increase in districtwide healthcare caps, totaling up to $15 million.
The district cut 20 jobs at the start of the new year to offset some of that.
The district says eliminating those positions will not have any sort of impact on educational experiences.