Trenton School Board to Bring Back Teachers

members said they are likely to vote in favor of bringing back four teachers and a behavioral specialist, and to keep the pool open at .

Board members are set to vote on the plan at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Board of Education Building.

Due to a recent reached in Lansing, Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal to cut per-pupil dollars was reduced to a per-pupil cut that would be less than $100. The original cut proposed by Snyder was to be $300 per student. Last year, the state cut $170 from per-pupil funding.

For Trenton this means the district will receive an additional $429,300 in per-pupil funding and instead of allowing the money to go to the general fund balance, district officials have made the decision to spend the money throughout the district.

There were four major ideas for the allocation of the money on the table at Monday’s board of education meeting and officials decided where they would spend the money Tuesday.

Here is a list of the desired plans and their individual costs:

• Keep transportation for all students ($400,000).
• Call back five teachers ($95,000 each, which includes salary, FICA, retirement and fringe benefits).
• Keep the Arthurs Middle School pool open ($50,000).
• Bring back the behavioral specialist at ($34,758).
• A combination of any of these items.

Two of the teachers to be called back are to be placed at and and the remaining teachers would go to the high school.

The teachers to be called back have not yet been decided.

The board decided to keep the pool open upon the recommendation that a cover and new heater were purchased in order to provide a significant energy savings, potentially reducing the initial cost of running the pool from $100,000 to $50,000. A recent bond issue would pay for the items.

The behavioral specialist position at the high school consists of enforcing attendance policies and monitoring in-school suspension.

Officials considered several combinations of these options and weighed the costs of the different variations. For example, to provide transportation for just the elementary and middle school students would be nearly the same cost as providing busing to all students.