|
The Challenge and the Plan |
A growing threat
What will the District be able to offer the next graduating classes, and future generations of BHS students?
Sadly, our continued ability to support a program that reflects the values and priorities of this community is seriously threatened. Swiftly rising costs, the declining economy and Michigan’s broken system of school finance jeopardize our promise of ongoing instructional excellence and choices.
We would need more than $2,300 per student in additional funding in order to have, when adjusted for inflation, the same level of per student funding that we had in 1994, before implementation of Proposal A.
At the District level, this means that BHS would need an additional $13 million per year, or 1,000 new students every year, in order to have the same total buying power that it had in 1994!
A plan of action
One way to address this problem is to relieve the BHS operating budget of some of its burden -- but not by cutting programs.
Instead, we can take our valued extracurricular program “off budget.” This means that the district would fund the costs of athletics, fine and performing arts and clubs through philanthropy. A comparable amount of general fund money would remain to support instruction.
We believe that there’s something empowering about taking financial matters into our own hands as a community.
We believe that we simply cannot wait for the State of Michigan to make the kind of fundamental school funding changes that would ensure future financial success.
To accomplish this objective, the new Bloomfield Hills Schools Foundation aims to raise $40 million from private donors over the next few years. This will generate adequate income to allow the Board of Education to spend its dollars on academics, but still offer co-curriculars and an enriched program as it has historically done.
|
|
Last Updated on Friday, 20 November 2009 14:50 |
Remember the Andover choirs’ poignant holiday concert performance with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra?
