GLADSTONE –On Monday, he Gladstone School Board adopted a budget for the 2025 to 2026 fiscal year, which begins on July 1. Contributing to frustration in Gladstone and at schools across Michigan is that the State’s House and Senate have not agreed on how to fund education. For this reason, local budgets were made conservatively.

The Michigan Senate, which is controlled by the Democratic Party, passed their version of a state budget in May. They want to increase per-pupil funding, provide for student mental health and continue to provide free breakfast and lunch to all public school students. The Michigan House of Representatives, on the other hand, is controlled by Republicans, and their budget — passed just last week — is very different. They, too, want to increase per-pupil funding, but at a cost. The House plan is to cut spending for programs like free school lunches, mental health support, and career and technical education.

“We heard from the House, and then every state school-related association wrote about how horrible their proposal was for public education,” Gladstone Superintendent Jay Kulbertis said Monday. “(The House budget) certainly moved the state financial support for public education backwards. So that’s a problem.”

With the school’s fiscal year beginning July 1, Gladstone and other schools had to adopt plans for spending for the next year, even without knowing how much aid was going to be coming in from the State.

Expecting a loss of $1.5 million in the next year’s revenues, Gladstone Area Schools Business Manager Lisa Boudreau said the plan is to spend conservatively over the next year.

A bus is currently on order, as the district usually buys a bus every year, but this one was a little cheaper than the last one, giving slight savings. Boudreau said it’s possible a bus purchase might not be necessary the following year.

Fortunately, Gladstone Area Schools has money in its fund balance that can be dipped into. In the last year, the district had excess revenue in a few areas, meaning more money was accumulated than was spent. So even by spending close to the same amount on school activities this upcoming year, the bank account won’t be totally depleted.

However, if free lunch ends up being scrapped from the state’s budget and Gladstone still provides it, that would eat into the the district’s savings over time.

Gladstone Area Schools’ general fund balance by July 1 should be $4,325,259. Based on the initial budget accepted Monday, it is projected to be $3,630,024 by the end of the next fiscal year (June 30, 2026).

Since the start of the fiscal year for schools is July 1, the state ideally would have released a final budget before then. But negotiations still need to take place between the Governor and both arms of the Legislature, and that phase can continue until the State’s fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. If no agreement is reached before then, the government could face a shutdown.

“I have zero faith that the state will be adopting the school budget before their deadline the end of September,” Kulbertis said. “Maybe they’ll pass something in August, (but) there’s just not a whole lot of real estate that you could call common ground. Totally different approaches, different priorities, and no indication that they’re going to work together.”

School business, however, continues. Work will be done to school buildings this summer, prioritized by need and availability since the bond proposals did not pass.

The building and grounds committee met recently; Board Member Henry Knoch reported that they saw the request for proposals (RFP) for roofing and expected to put out an RFP for the resurfacing of driveways and parking lots would be released soon.

Kulbertis said that items from the bond want list that would be completed first would be mostly repairs — he mentioned redoing the gym floor at the junior high, painting, tiling, and sound systems.

In other business:

– Teachers and staff members representing various areas at Jones Elementary were appointed to a planning team to decide what type of content they would like to see in professional development sessions that will take place in 2026.

– Brief discussion about the superintendent sharing between Gladstone and Rapid River took place. Board Member Phil DeMay believes that Gladstone should have a full-time superintendent, while no other members seemed to see a problem with the existing arrangement, which began when money was tight for both districts. Board Member Joanna Wilbee-Amis said that other school districts have been having trouble finding good superintendent candidates lately, suggesting that splitting the roles now wouldn’t be wise.

– The board accepted letters of resignation from Teacher Jayci McInnis and Teamster Jessica Couillard.

– Danica Swanson was hired as the freshman class advisor.

– Kaitlyn Malkanowski was hired as the middle school special education teacher.

“Our special education numbers … are going through the roof, and it’s nice to have Kaitlyn on board to make sure our caseloads are within a legal range and to dissipate some of the high numbers in the classroom,” said Middle School Principal Dave Ballard.

– Reintroducing an art program to the middle school, the board approved the part-time hire of Amy Gilner, who will teach art in the mornings. Ballard explained that interest in an after-school art club had been so high last year that he and Kulbertis decided to add the program availability into the regular school day.

– The board adopted a second budget amendment for the 2024 to 2025 fiscal year, which concludes at the end of this month.