Artifact 3

Running head: WBSD BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 2016-2017

West Bloomfield School District

Budget Recommendations for 2016-2017
Thomas R. DeGrand
Oakland University
EA 741- Dr. Klein
April 25, 2016

WBSD BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 2016-2017

Abstract
Just as private-sector businesses are known to use economic downturns to streamline
operations and boost productivity, the ongoing recession has undoubtedly led district and state
officials to take a fresh look at spending priorities and practices in K-12 education (as cited in
Hess & Osberg, 2010, p. 263). This is precisely the case in the West Bloomfield School District.
They have completed rounds and rounds of cuts ranging from simply installing centrally
controlled thermostats and motion sensor lighting, to large-scale cuts such as salary cuts/freezes
and outsourcing various services. These standard cuts have taken place over the past ten years,
and some may be considered smart and much needed cuts. Unfortunately, the district has no
where left to cut. In desperation, they have hired an external consultant to analyze district
systems, expenditures, and sources of revenue. Throughout this report, a series of
recommendations are made as a result of this analysis. The district will be left with the decision
to implement what may be considered novel, radical ideas. However, this creative thinking may
be what is needed during the recovery from a shattering economic recession.

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West Bloomfield School District Budget Recommendations for 2016-2017

Tough times bring tough decisions. That sums up what West Bloomfield School District
has endured these past ten years. Once upon a time, not so long ago, West Bloomfield was one
of the most sought after school districts in which to work and learn. In recent times, they are
seeing students and employees flee. For example, the district has lost approximately 1,600
students in the past ten years; 1,300 coming from just the past five years (WBSD 2015-2016
Budget Report). Why? That is where I come in. I was hired by the school district to analyze
various elements that may be contributing to the budgetary problems, retention of teachers, and
the retention of students. This paper will serve as my analysis of the issues at hand, as well as
my recommendations to improve. It is my belief that West Bloomfield School District was once
one of the best in the state. With these recommendations, I believe this district can and will
return to this exemplary status, and teachers and students will be lined up at the doors again.
Budget Development Process
In order to gain a better understanding of the budgetary issues of West Bloomfield School
District, I needed to get a better idea of how they develop their district budget. To do so, I had
the privilege of interviewing the Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations, Mr.
William Mull, on February 2, 2016. Through this interview, I learned that Mr. Mull is
responsible for the $81 million annual budget. This includes the General Fund, Special
Education Fund, Food Service Fund, Building and Site Sinking Fund, Community Service Fund,
and Debt Retirement Fund. While he is responsible for the budget, Mr. Mull made it clear that
he only presents his budget to the Superintendent. The Superintendent recommends the budget
to the Board of Education, which place the final approval on it. This process seems
comprehensive, with multiple eyes looking through it before a stamp of approval is ever done.

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However, it appeared as though Mr. Mull works by himself, rather than with a team. I believe a
team is a more efficient and effective way of going about business, especially considering the
importance of the decisions being made. While I would suggest the district hire a team of
financial experts to assist Mr. Mull with the district budget, I dont believe it is entirely necessary
with a district of this size that is already struggling financially. It was my impression that Mr.
Mull, now in his third year in the district, is doing an excellent job managing the finances. The
current budgetary issues are not due to decisions he has been making. West Bloomfield is lucky
to have him.
Stakeholder Involvement with District Budget
Now that I have briefly explained the process of how budgetary decisions are made in the
West Bloomfield School District, I would like to share how involved the district allows their
stakeholders to be in those decisions. In addition to interviewing Mr. Mull, I also attended
multiple board meetings. During those meetings, individuals were given an opportunity to voice
their opinions or ideas. I witnessed parents, staff members, students, and members from the
business community all speak. They seemed to appreciate the opportunity to speak their minds;
however, I question if that was enough. I did not get a sense that there was much involvement
from all these stakeholder groups with the budget process. It appeared as though the only people
making the decisions were the Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations, the
Superintendent, and the Board of Education. Then, I was informed on February 25, 2016 by a
fine teacher in the district, Mr. Thomas Degrandgagnage, that the district, in partnership with
Oakland University, sent out a survey to all stakeholders. The district speaks to the data for this
survey on their website by stating:

WBSD BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 2016-2017

To maintain our reputation as a leading school district, we sought input to implement the
many ideas put forward by the community during Coffee Talks, Superintendents Parent
Communication Network and West Bloomfield Board of Education meetings. Parents,
teachers, staff, students and community members were all invited to serve on committees
to review and create program and budget recommendations to continue the evolution of
our school districts Strategic Visioning Plan. (Strategic Visioning, wbsd.org)
It is my hope that the words spoken by the stakeholders in the survey and email/phone
communications, as well as at Coffee Talks, board meetings, and committee meetings, are
considered when decisions are made. When you give people a voice, you in turn build
commitment, ownership, and action. This will ultimately build a stronger foundation of a
district, acting as one unit working together toward a common goalstudent achievement.
Accessibility of Budget Information to Stakeholders
Giving people a voice is extremely important; however, if they dont have the
information, then they will have a difficult time forming a voice, or worse yet, their voice will be
misinformed. After analyzing all aspects of the budgetary elements in the West Bloomfield
School District, I have found their budget information to be comprehensive, easy to find, and
easy to understand. There are three methods for accessing this information. First, a community
member can find all budget reports and any other financial data for the district on the
transparency report link found on the districts homepage. Within the budget reports, Mr. Mull
has created slides that are easy to understand, using tables and colored pie charts. If someone is
interested in delving into the information at a deeper level, a breakdown of every dollar spent
and earned is provided following the slides. It is well-organized by each specific fund.

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A second method for accessing the budget information is by attending the monthly board
meetings. During these meetings, reports are presented regarding the finances of the district for
that school year, as well as proposals for the following school year.
A third and final method for accessing budgeting information takes a bit more effort. In
the office of every school building is a binder containing that years budget report. This
information can be found online, but it allows access to the information for those individuals
without internet access.
There is one major flaw I see in West Bloomfields ability to provide stakeholder groups
access to the financial informationeffortless access. There is no doubt the district provides the
information, and provides it in an easy-to-find, easy-to-read way. However, people are simply
too busy these days to take the time to seek it out. It may not be because they do not want to;
rather, they either forget to or just do not have time to do so. I recommend that the district
construct a digital billboard on Orchard Lake Road in front of the high school. This should not
be much larger than their current digital scrolling sign. With a digital billboard, you can project
full color static images that rotate every three seconds. This billboard could present information
on school sports, concerts, calendar, and now budgetary information. The budget information
would serve as a broad overview of the most pertinent information, such as fund equity, per pupil
foundation, total pupil count, revenue/expenditures, etc. The cost to construct it could easily be
offset with a donation from a local business. This also opens the door to more revenue via
advertising, which I will get into later. The beauty here is that someone driving or walking by
only has to look at it; no searching the internet, thumbing through binders, attending lengthy
board meetingsit is completely effortless. I believe this would be West Bloomfields most
effective way to get the community informed on the finances of the district.

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Budget Recommendations and District Priorities

West Bloomfield School District makes it very clear that their priorities lie in the
classroom. As I learned in my interview with Mr. Mull, 81.9% of the districts general fund is
designated for salaries and benefits. This shows that they believe in having the most highly
effective teachers in front of the classrooms teaching the students. This is an important fact
considering the research John Hattie conducted that stated the quality of the teacher represents
30% of the variance in student achievement, second to only the students themselves (2003, p. 2).
This belief began with their past Superintendent, Dr. Seymour Gretchko. He believed that
schools were not banks; the money should go back into the classrooms. While this is a
commendable idea, it may have been the strategy that ultimately sank West Bloomfield when the
perfect storm hitcuts in state funding, loss of 20J money, and declining enrollment. With very
little fund balance, West Bloomfield simply could not weather the storm, and found themselves
near or even below 0% fund equity for many years. This resulted in years of salary cuts and
freezes and other district budget cuts, leading to poor staff morale and the loss of many highlytalented young staff. You add this all up and you will find a district struggling to stay afloat,
creating a negative atmosphere; one that parents want to avoid by separating from the district to
attend a neighboring district. The bleeding seems to be slowing down with less than projected
student decline and a fund balance up over 5%. It is looking promising that the staff will receive
some increase in compensation for next year, which will help build that morale and retain the
quality teachers. With the district priority still focused on the classroom, they cant afford to lose
any more. I recommend that the district find ways to compensate teachers, whether it be
financially or through better working conditions, while at the same time keeping a fund balance

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above 5%. This will give them some rainy day funds for when the next storm arrives, and will
also satisfy the state requirement of school districts retaining a fund balance of at least 5%.
Building Level Needs and Budget Resource Allocation
During my interview with Mr. Mull, I learned that each level (elementary, middle school,
and high school) are not funded equally. For example, elementary basic instruction is funded at
$11.74 million, middle school basic instruction receives $6.26 million, and high school basic
instruction receives $8.66 million. In addition, special education is funded at $4.49 million. It
gets interesting when you calculate the amount per pupil. See below:

Elementary- $5,214.07/student

Middle School- $4,841.45/student

High School- $4,501.04/student

District Average- $4,845.00/student

Special Education- $16,568/student (about double the foundation

allowance of approximately $8,800)

As you can see, the elementary per pupil amount is higher. My assumption is that this is
due to lower class sizes in the elementary creating a lower student-to-teacher ratio, which
increases the number of teachers needed. I am not in agreement with Hess and Osberg (2010) of
increasing class sizes in the elementary level. I believe this creates less one-on-one instructional
time, a more disruptive learning environment, and increased teacher workload. This brings about
greater teacher stress, which increases teacher attrition. According to Espinoza (2015),
Growing stress is the leading reason for teachers taking time off work or leaving the profession
entirely, new data has revealed. Ingersoll and Smith (2003) confirmed from their research,
The data suggest that after just five years, between 40 and 50 percent of all beginning teachers

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have left the profession (p. 31). For a district trying to retain high quality teachers, increasing
class sizes is not the route to go.
Another observation from the data above is the high cost of special education. The
district has implemented a multi-tiered support system (MTSS) that is designed to support
classroom teachers with interventions to use with students that have not been identified as a
special education student. This allows a district to provide a high quality education to students
without the high cost of special education support. This coincides with what June Kronholz
states, providing tutoring and counseling when problems first appear so that students with only
a reading difficulty or a behavior problem are not channeled into expensive special education
classes or services (as cited in Hess & Osberg, 2010, p. 68). If the interventions do not prove
effective, then districts can move into the testing phase, which would allow a student to receive
accommodations if they test positive for various disabilities. This process came about due to so
many schools immediately jumping to the testing phase without attempting a support system
within the classroom with the general education teacher. Students not necessarily needing
special education support were receiving it. As Superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools,
Bernard Taylor Jr., states, Special ed is such a regulations-driven endeavor that the only
opportunity to save money is dependent on how many students are identified as being in need
(as cited in Hess & Osberg, 2010, p. 68). Therefore, my recommendation is to continue the
process of MTSS to help reduce special education costs for students that can achieve at a high
level without it.
Efficiency and Quality of Auxiliary Services
West Bloomfield School District has outsourced many of their auxiliary services,
including transportation, food service, custodial, and technology (Oakland Schools). While this

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has allowed for cost savings, I am unaware of the effect it has had on the quality of service. The
only perspective I received was through a conversation with that excellent teacher, Mr.
Degrandgagnage. He mentioned that he has observed higher quality work in the areas of
custodial work and technology support, and no change in the transportation and food service. He
mentioned that he has heard of custodial issues at other schools, but not at his own. I
recommend that the district continue with their contracts with these auxiliary services to help
with cost savings.
In addition, on March 3, 2016, I had the opportunity to interview the West Bloomfield
High School Assistant Principal and Athletic Director, Mr. Eric Pierce. We spoke specifically
about the funding for athletics at the high school. A couple recommendations were born from
this conversation. The first was to alter the pay-to-play fee from a per sport cost ($300 for first,
$150 for second, $100 for third) to an annual fee ($300 total). Mr. Pierce felt this would be an
effective way to encourage students to play multiple sports since it would not cost them more. I
fully support this idea and recommend that the district implement this fee structure for the 20162017 school year.
The second recommendation that came out of this interview was the idea of advertising
and naming rights. Mr. Pierce mentioned that naming rights are being pursued, as well as
additional advertising from local businesses (i.e. community partners). This could involve
naming the football stadium like you see being done at the professional level, or posting
advertisements on or around other athletic fields, in the buildings, on the proposed digital
billboard, and possibly even on busses. While this may not be attractive to the community, if
they can see what funds are able to be brought in as a result of the advertising, and what
programs/resources can be purchased with them to better educate the students of West

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Bloomfield, the more attractive it may become. This goes back to the idea that an informed
community is a strong one. If they know the details, they may see the value is worth the
displeasing appearance. As Martin West states, Overcoming the barriers to cost-cutting reform
in American school districts will requirea newfound willingnessto experiment with novel
approaches (as cited in Hess & Osberg, 2010, p. 283). In other words, school districts need
to think outside the box; desperate times bring desperate measures. I believe the West
Bloomfield School District is faced with a financial situation needing radical solutions. They
have done all the standard cutting they can possibly do. It is time to be creative before more staff
and students leave the district. I recommend that they pursue the idea of naming rights and
advertising on school property. Once they are more financially secure, they can start to fade out
the advertising. The football stadium naming rights should be contractual; therefore, they will
have the ability to move away from this idea at the conclusion of the contract if they so choose.
These recommendations will help replace the revenue lost through declining student enrollment.
Effectiveness in Dealing with State and Local Funding Constraints
My interview with Mr. Mull, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations in the
West Bloomfield School District, proved one important factWest Bloomfield is doing
everything within their power to stay above water. They have their West Bloomfield Education
Foundation, bonds, and sinking fund. They have creatively increased their student enrollment
through foreign exchange programs and partnerships with Oakland Community College and
nearby private schools. They appear to have a high quality finance expert running the financial
side of the district. They have a human resources director that has the interests of the staff at the
heart of all of his decisions. He wants to work together with all stakeholders, creating a culture
this district hasnt seen in years. This is evident in the start of a new bargaining structure, known

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as Interest-Based Bargaining (IBB), where two sides become one, collaborating to create the best
possible contractual agreement for both the district and the staff. The district has a school board
that considers the livelihoods of the staff, as well as the achievement of the students. The district
has all the pieces in place to be great againthe place families and staff yearn to be.
They have the pieces in place to deal with the financial constraints, but are they enacting
all possible approaches to cost-cutting? I believe there are four strategies that could help the
district cut costs even more: 1. Cut block scheduling from the high school; 2. Require
administrators and curriculum specialists to sub a minimum of five days per year; 3. Create a
more effective incentive program to prevent teacher absences; 4. Move to a hybrid instructional
model at the high school level.
First, block scheduling has been a topic of contention for a long time in the district.
While it allows for a higher variety of elective classes, it creates an added cost to the district due
to lower student numbers in these classes. I recommend pricing out these electives as suggested
by Marguerite Roza (as cited in Hess & Osberg, 2010). She states,
(P)er-student spending can be computed for the various services students receive, such as
for the different courses taken in high schoolsBy partitioning the primary cost drivers
(usually salaries) and dividing them among their courses and students (units), the
resulting analysis has surfaced some unexpected per-unit costs in some schools and
classrooms. (p. 75)
Finding per-unit costs will allow the district to discover which elective classes are worth
dropping due to high per-unit costs. This could result in a decrease in high expense courses or
the elimination of block scheduling in total, both of which would be cost-cutting for the district.
If the district eliminates block scheduling, they will want to evaluate possible loss of student

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enrollment since many families express their appreciation for the large array of course offerings
in the high school. While block scheduling may help retain some students in the district, they
will need to find out if the cost of potentially losing some enrollment is higher than the amount
saved.
My second recommendation is to require administrators and curriculum specialists to
substitute teach a minimum of five days per school year. June Kronholz states, (This strategy)
will save only $100,000 out of the districts $1.4 million substitute budget, but it helps and is
good for everyone to see what its like in a classroom, said David Peterson, the chief business
officer (as cited in Hess & Osberg, 2010, p. 54). Not only will this save the district money, but
it will help reconnect the administrators and curriculum specialists to the classroom, making
them more effective at these positions.
My third recommendation is also related to substitute costs. West Bloomfield School
District is reporting teacher absenteeism numbers equal to districts much larger in size. This
represents a staff that may have a low level of morale and a high level of stress resulting in more
personal illness days being used. Steven Wilson recommends solving this problem by requiring
teachers to report their absences directly to their principal or offering financial incentives
(rewards for exceptional attendance or buy-back of unused sick days) (as cited in Hess &
Osberg, 2010, p. 150). West Bloomfield currently has an incentive system in place for perfect
attendance ($250 for zero absences, $200 for not more than two); however, I believe these
amounts need to be increased to provide more of an incentive. Considering the cost per day of a
substitute (approximately $100), the payoff for the district to eliminate sick days used could be
substantial. I recommend an incentive of at least $750 for zero absences, $500 for not more than
two, and $250 for not more than four. This could be a starting point; evaluate success after year

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one of implementation. The district also utilizes the buy-back strategy of unused sick days, but
teachers only receive $55/day up to 180 days. In addition, they dont receive that money until
they separate from the district. I recommend increasing the payout to $75/day, as well as a more
immediate payout to entice staff to come to work. Thinking many years down the road wont
bring about increased attendance. However, if a teacher knows they will be paid at the end of the
year for days they did not use, they may be more inclined to come to work instead of using those
mental health days. The idea here is to encourage better attendance from teachers so that more
effective teaching and learning is taking place in the classroom each day.
My fourth and final recommendation for cost-cutting to effectively deal with the current
state and local funding constraints is to move to a hybrid instructional model at the high school
level. I do not advocate for full online schooling. I believe there will always be a need for the
face-to-face interaction with teachers. However, I believe technology and software has reached a
point where its effectiveness in educating students is worth implementing into the day. This is
already being done by teachers at all levels, whether it be the use of Google Classroom or the
pedagogical model known as a flipped classroom (video lectures viewed at home prior to in-class
discussions, projects, and activities). John Chubb states, Students need not learn in wholegroup, teacher-led classrooms, which does not work well for many students anyway. Students
can take some or all of their instruction online in a school building (as cited in Hess & Osberg,
2010, p. 173). He later adds, Classes can also be a mixture of online and face-to-face, a bit like
college classesTechnology offers the potential- right now- for schools to change the mix of
traditional and online instruction to better meet the academic needs of students (as cited in Hess
& Osberg, 2010, p. 174). So where does the cost-cutting come into place? Chubb suggests that
a hybrid model would require half to a third the number of teachers on site as traditional

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instruction (as cited in Hess & Osberg, 2010, p. 174). The online portion of the instruction
could take place in large areas, such as cafeterias, auditoriums, computer labs, courtyards, media
centers, or atriums. Chubb states that class sizes at the high school level could be two to three
times the size of a traditional classroom, resulting in 29% fewer teachers (as cited in Hess &
Osberg, 2010, p. 174). When you consider West Bloomfield School District spends 81.9% of its
general fund on staff salaries and benefits, you can see the potential savings this hybrid model
could offer to the district. The students are ready for this shift; the district is in financial need of
this shift. With a one-to-one Chromebook initiative already implemented in the district, they
have everything they need in place. The time is now to make a change, but I recommend easing
into it and evaluate the effectiveness along the way via achievement data, survey data, and
financial data. Remember, tough times require creative, radical, and novel solutions.
Facility Usage and Maintenance
During my analysis of the West Bloomfield School District, I did not notice any outlying
issues with the facility usage and effective management of maintenance and other facility needs.
Buildings seem to be in good working order, clean, and prepped to provide the best learning
environment for the students. Since the district outsourced their custodial staff in the fall of the
2012-2013 school year, they are continually monitoring the cost savings and the quality of the
service provided by GCA Services Group. I do not recommend the district separating from this
contract at this time.
After a conversation on March 25, 2016 with Joey Spano, West Bloomfield Community
Education Director, the district appears to be doing an effective job at renting out district
facilities to generate revenue. She states on the districts website,

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School district facilities are available on a rental basis to individuals, groups, and
religious and community organizations; generating revenue for the district and bringing
people into our buildingsProfits generated from our activities flow back into the
General Fund of the School District, thereby further enhancing WBSDs educational
programs. (wbsd.schoolwires.net)
As you can see, the West Bloomfield School District has made the necessary cost-cutting
changes to maintenance and custodial, and is also taking advantage of renting out facilities to
bring in additional revenue to the district. I do not have any recommendations at this time to
improve these two areas.
Conclusion
As an external consultant hired by the West Bloomfield School District, I was given the
opportunity to investigate areas that could be revised to cut costs or bring in revenue for the
district. During these four months, I had the privilege of interviewing some important
stakeholders within the district, including but not limited to: William Mull (Assistant
Superintendent for Business and Operations), Eric Pierce (WBHS Assistant Principal/Athletic
Director), Thomas Degrandgagnage (fifth grade teacher), Joey Spano (WBCE Director), parents,
other staff members, and community members of the district. I used the districts 2015-2016 and
2016-2017 Budget Reports and attended multiple school board meetings to better understand the
expenditures and revenues of the district. Lastly, I completed a great deal of my own research on
some of the best cost-cutting strategies that have proven to be effective for districts struggling
during these tough financial times.
The recommendations I provided throughout this report are intended to be ideas the
district should seriously consider as they move forward in their attempt to become more

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financially stable. The recommendations are not meant to be completed in total, and the ideas
can be altered to fit what the district views necessary for their needs. While I have learned a
great deal about the West Bloomfield School District, the district knows itself best and will have
to consider what its stakeholders, ultimately the students, need in the future to ensure the highest
student achievement possible.

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References
Espinoza, J. (2015, March 18). 'Stress pushing teachers to leave profession,' figures show. The
Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/
11480108/Stress-pushing-teachers-to-leave-profession-figures-show.html
Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference. What is the research evidence? Distinguishing
Expert Teachers from Novice and Experienced Teachers, 1-2.
Hess, F.M., & Osberg, E. (2010). Stretching the school dollar: How schools and districts can
save money while serving students best. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Ingersoll, R.M., & Smith, T.M. (2003, May). The wrong solution to the teacher shortage.
Educational Leadership: Keeping Good Teachers, 60 (8), 30-33.
Spano, J.M. (n.d.). Community Education Department. Retrieved from
http://wbsd.schoolwires.net/domain/61
West Bloomfield School District. (2015, June 22). West Bloomfield School District 2015-2016
budget- all funds. West Bloomfield, MI: Mull, W.
West Bloomfield School District. (2016, February 18). West Bloomfield School District 20162017 budget analysis project and development. West Bloomfield, MI: Mull, W.
West Bloomfield School District. (n.d.). Strategic Visioning. Retrieved from
http://wbsd.schoolwires.net/domain/157

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