News Photo by Julie Goldberg Onaway Area Community Schools Superintendent Rod Fullerton is seen working on Feb. 26. Fullerton is the superintendent and business manager for Onaway, but completes other tasks for the district because the district has eliminated positions throughout the years to save money.

ALPENA — Hillman Community Schools and Onaway Area Community Schools have made adjustments the past few years to ensure a bright future for both districts.

Amid declining enrollment that meant less money from the state, the districts have tried to make cuts that wouldn’t affect students.

While other Northeast Michigan school districts have maintained relatively healthy budgets in recent years, Hillman and Onaway have both had to run tight budgets and make cuts to maintain a positive budget.

Onaway’s bad times with finances are similar to other districts in the state, Onaway Superintendent Rod Fullerton said.

“I hate to have a knee-jerk reactions to it,” Fullerton said of Onaway’s budget. “We have to smooth that effect and look and forecast where we’re at.”

Hillman worked last summer to overcome a $464,000 gap between income and expenses, caused mostly by declining enrollment. After making cuts that included layoffs, Superintendent Carl Seiter said, the district’s cash account is currently at $484,986, not close to what the district anticipated.

MAKING CUTS

Both districts have made cuts throughout the years to help with finances.

Teaching staff and support staff were both affected in Onaway, but, with declining enrollment, losing staff evened everything out, Fullerton said.

“It pretty much mirrors,” Fullerton said. “We’ve adjusted staff as much as we’ve had a reduction in students. It’s not any different than other industries.”

The district has also cut administrative positions.

“Back in the early 2000s, we had three principals, a superintendent, and a business manager, but now I’m the combined superintendent and business manager, and we only have two principals,” Fullerton said.

The district cut its band program in half. The program was full-time, but the district changed it to part-time to help with costs.

“At one point, we were going to lose band, but we ended up bringing in a teacher part-time,” Fullerton said.

The district used to have a full-time mechanic and transportation supervisor, but those are now part-time positions.

Onaway Elementary School Principal Mindy Horn said the district has worked to make sure nothing affects kids.

The school has been able to maintain programs and athletics, but “we don’t enjoy a lot of extras,” Horn said.

Hillman had to lay off employees last summer to help with finances. The district laid off eight people — a cook, an elementary playground paraprofessional, four elementary instructional paraprofessionals, and two instructional paraprofessionals.

Some of those employees were able to get their jobs back with funds from Title 1, a federal educational program.

“The district was forced to make adjustments to ensure our financial stability,” Seiter said.

The Hillman Board of Education talked about cutting programs, but was able to avoid doing so. To help with finances, the board implemented a pay-to-play fee, meaning students are required to pay $50 per sport. The fee would generate $11,150, based on the 223 athletes from the 2018-19 school year.

DECLINING ENROLLMENT

Declining enrollment has been a factor in both district’s budget issues.

In the 2008-09 school year, Onaway had 742 students. Last year, there were 604 students.

Districts are paid per student, so losing 138 students over 10 years cost Onaway about $1.1 million in state funding, based on last year’s per-pupil amount of $7,871 per student.

“Our biggest thing is maintaining student count,” Fullerton said. “There are a few districts in the state that have seen increases in student population. If you look at the total numbers of students in Michigan from 10 years ago, the total student population has decreased.”

Hillman has gone from 514 students to 411 the past 10 years, a roughly $800,000 loss.

Seiter said Hillman’s fund balance has declined the past few years because of the decline in student population. The district had a $794,482 fund balance in 2018, and then a $594,521 fund balance last year.

“With a lower number of students comes lower amounts of state funding,” Seiter said.

LESS MONEY FROM THE STATE

Adding to Hillman and Onaway’s woes, schools across Michigan took a hit financially in 2010 when the state cut per-pupil payments from the previous year.

In the 2010-11 school year, both Onaway and Hillman received $7,146 per-pupil from the state. The next year, both districts only received $6,846 per-pupil.

“We would certainly like to have additional dollars to help the staff that are full-time in our building for things, but we’re not there yet,” Horn, the Onaway Elementary principal, said. “It ties our hands.”

Since that year, the state has given more money to schools over the years, which has helped both Onaway and Hillman financially.

Both districts received $8,111 per pupil this school year.

“We’re seeing some foundation allowance increases,” Fullerton said. “Up until the last few years, you saw very few increases.”

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.