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Kulbertis optimistic about state’s education funding

ESCANABA — Budget season has begun in Michigan, and Gladstone Superintendent Jay Kulbertis shared his thoughts and concerns regarding the Michigan Legislature during the Gladstone Area Schools Board of Education’s regular meeting Monday.

“Our Legislature’s back in session, and it’s already been a busy kick-off to budget season,” he said.

Kulbertis said he was particularly concerned by ongoing efforts in the House to repeal Michigan’s income tax. He said these efforts would not be supported by most educators without a plan in place to make up for the loss of revenue that repealing this tax would create.

“There’s still talk about repealing the state income tax… it’s not something that educators would support until or unless there’s some way to backfill those revenues,” he said.

Kulbertis was more enthusiastic about Gov. Rick Snyder’s initial state budget proposal, which was published earlier this month. According to Kulbertis, Snyder’s $56.3 billion proposal appears to be promising for public schools in Gladstone and elsewhere in Michigan.

“(It’s) very favorable for schools going forward,” he said.

Kulbertis said the proposal includes an increase of roughly $100 in state funding of schools per student (along with a $50 increase per high school student) and additional funding for at-risk youth.

“There was nothing in it that we would consider, for our district, to be bad news,” he said.

Snyder’s proposal would also tie school revenues more closely to expenditures — something Kulbertis said his district has been in support of. “We were happy to see several different examples of that in his budget proposal,” he said.

Looking toward the future, Kulbertis believes the next major step in the state’s budgeting process could take place in May.

“That will very, very likely be when the Senate and the House put forth their versions of the budget,” he said.

In other business, the board:

– approved the hiring of Craig Stoken as a bus driver.

– accepted a letter rescinding intent to retire at the end of the 2016-17 school year from Judy Tochterman and accepted a letter of intent to retire on Feb. 28, 2018 from Tochterman.

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