DPSCD approves $1.1B school budget with hundreds of staff changes, money for buildings

Detroit — School officials approved a $1.135 billion budget for the new school year that includes about 280 personnel changes and $235 million to fully fund $700 million in facility projects. 

The Detroit Public Schools Community District's board of education approved the budget Tuesday, balancing its revenues and expenses without federal COVID funds for the 2023-24 school year while implementing a massive personnel restructuring plan that has forced some employees to move into new positions or accept severance.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the budget was approved even though the district cannot say yet how many people will be laid off until the end of the month.

"That is when the contract and fiscal year ends for most employees. With that said, there will be no school culture facilitators or paraprofessionals 'laid off,'" Vitti said. "Each employee in those two groups accepted another role or accepted a severance pay. We have roughly 20 employees outside of those two employee groups that have still not accepted another position or a severance. We expect that number to decline by the end of the month."

In May, Vitti called for eliminating 333 positions across Michigan's largest school district but giving 200 of those impacted employees the option to move into alternative jobs — some that pay better than current positions. Not all of the 333 targeted positions were staffed.

Layoff notices were sent to three groups of employees — kindergarten paraeducators, school culture facilitators and college transition advisers — that included options for alternative jobs in the district. Some central office staff and some principals and assistant principals received letters saying their current jobs are being eliminated but that anyone with a teaching certification can move into alternative positions.

Vitti said there will be few layoffs for hourly employees because school culture facilitators and kindergarten paraprofessionals have taken different positions for next year.

The budget maintains current class sizes, expands the number of academic interventionists, maintains or expands student wellness through mental health supports at schools, keeps attendance agents for larger schools and district-based support for smaller schools and maintains course recovery efforts at high schools to ensure students graduate in four years, according to the district's budget documents.

It also provides salary increases for all staffers districtwide and increases the hourly rates and the number of work hours for cafeteria workers in order to fully staff school lunchrooms.

Some say budget cuts are 'ill-timed'

Board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo was the only member to vote no on the budget. She told The News on Wednesday the district cannot cut its way to solvency and that more can be done to recruit new and former students.

"Our budget is a moral compass that should lead us to increased and improved academic achievement," Gay-Dagnogo said. "You can't cut your way to solvency. We haven't done enough to recruit our students back."

Both the academic and finance committees had reviewed and approved the budget — which was $88 million less than last year's — and the board already approved Vitti's personnel restructuring plan at a prior meeting.

Lakia Wilson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said on Wednesday that the cuts are "ill-timed and premature," even though no teachers were laid off.

"The cuts that have been made in some our ancillary staff, to us we can't make sense of it, because our children need more services — if anything — especially as we move forward from COVID and try to make up from the learning loss," Wilson said.

Wilson said DPSCD is in a great place financially and getting better.

"We know there will be an exodus. We have retirees moving on. That always helps the budget," Wilson said.

The budget creates a $4.2 million surplus to address emergencies, shifts in enrollment or other unexpected spending in the district of 106 schools. Some buildings are slated for closure and phase-out in coming years.

DPSCD's K-12 student enrollment is projected to remain at 48,200 students. The district is projecting a 335-student increase in preschool with an additional 20 new classrooms next school year. Overall district enrollment is about 2,000 less than pre-pandemic levels, officials said.

The district will bring a budget amendment in the fall which will reflect final funding levels by the state — which approves its own budget on Oct. 1 — and fall count day enrollment, which is taken in October.

The district experienced growth in its 2021 and 2022 budgets due in part to the infusion of federal COVID funds, which will total $1.2 billion over four years and must be spent by September 2024.

Vitti said the district faces challenges such as inflation driving up the costs of materials, salaries increasing across the region and an aging workforce requiring higher salaries to retain staff.

The district was released from state oversight in 2020 by the Detroit Financial Review Commission, which had direct, day-to-day financial and operational oversight of the school system after a $617 million state bailout in 2016.

New financial forecasts show the district's legacy debts will be retired in 2026, about 10 years after it went through the state-financed restructuring — one year earlier than expected under the bailout legislation.

jchambers@detroitnews.com