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TCAPS' Three-Point Plan
March 19th Community Update - TCAPS' Budget Planning Process
From: Superintendent Jim Feil
On March 23, the Traverse City Area School Board will vote on a budget development direction that will keep us focused on all students succeeding. Board support will ensure that necessary investments in all-day everyday kindergarten, early childhood education, academically talented, foreign language in elementary schools, special needs, and the fine and performing arts programming remain a priority.
The state and national economy are at their lowest levels since the Great Depression. In spite of these most challenging financial times, TCAPS places our students and highly qualified staff at the center of all decisions. We will not falter or deter our efforts for all students to succeed. We will continue our leadership role in providing only the best education for our students.
TCAPS is actively working a three-point plan to propel the district forward and keep a focus on providing all our students with top-notch education to prepare them well for the future.
First, we are continuing our fight for equitable school funding and will expand efforts for foundation, community, and grant support. The State’s discriminatory school funding practice has placed TCAPS at a major funding disadvantage. TCAPS is capable of taking student success to even greater levels faster with a level funded playing field.
Second, TCAPS continues to promote proactive partnership efforts throughout our region and stateto accelerate student learning and lower costs. Current partnership efforts are deep and wide but more can be done by mapping community assets, evaluating our progress, and making adjustments for an even greater return. TCAPS is presently working with the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District where much effort is already underway.
Third, TCAPS promises to continue its responsible and fiscal management approach to ensure the school district’s operational costs are kept in line with available resources. We recognize that tough decisions are going to be necessary to keep our schools academically strong and financially healthy. TCAPS has been more than good stewards of public money. TCAPS district receives the lowest funding level in the State’s tiered and inequitable school funding formula. If all other districts were funded at our level, the State of Michigan would have a large surplus in their state school aid fund. We cannot, however, ignore the unfortunate brutal facts of an ever dwindling state resource base.
On behalf of the Board of Education, I invite our community to join our efforts in keeping the focus on our students and their future. Strong communities build strong schools and strong schools build strong communities. Together we can reach higher and demonstrate to the rest of the state our resilience and capacity to lead. For more information, please contact us at info@tcaps.net.
Three Point Plan Information
Information and updates will continue to be posted to keep our students, staff, and community apprised on the progress of TCAPS Budget development discussions and decisions.
View Superintendent Feil's Budget Reduction Recommendation (work in progress as of 3-6-09) to be presented at the March 9 Board of Education Meeting. The meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Tompkins Boardman Administration Building, 412 Webster Street. Please contact the Superintendent's Office at 231-933-1725 for more information.
To address TCAPS’ operational shortfalls projected over the next two fiscal years, a three pronged approach or “Three Point Plan” is underway. The plan includes the following major initiatives:
- Aggressive campaigns to generate new sources of revenue
- Expand and enhance partnerships
- Implement reductions of budgeted expenditures.
A focus on revenues will continue to stimulate energy within our organization as well as throughout the educational community throughout Michigan to fuel efforts that result in substantive increases in funds available to TCAPS. The state and national revenues are not keeping up with the cost to educate students.
TCAPS has been very responsible in the financial management of our system and we have positioned the district to proactively deal with these challenges. TCAPS will continue its commitment to lead the way in this educational evolution despite the financial challenges at hand. The world of education is evolving quickly and it is very easy to understand that public education will look substantially different ten years from now than it does today.
TCAPS will remain laser focused in our commitment to meeting the needs of ALL children on the educational spectrum. To demonstrate this, we will be expanding our all day everyday kindergarten offerings in the upcoming year, and we will continue to look for enhancements to our preschool and other early childhood initiatives. TCAPS will also continue to provide a well-rounded, rich curriculum for the children of our district that includes opportunities for acceleration at every learning level to ensure each student is ready to meet more advanced challenges.
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