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Schools

Dearborn Schools Debate Millage Proposal to Fund Building Repairs, Improvements

As sources of school funding continue to dry up, the prospect of a sinking fund millage proposal may gain support among school board members.

It’s been on the back burner for about five or six years, but in this era of school funding cutbacks and escalating expenses, discussion of a sinking fund for Dearborn Public Schools has come into focus again.

A sinking fund is established by a school district or municipal entity and can be used to pay for construction, repairs, physical improvements and building enhancements. Though the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education has made no decision regarding whether to put the issue on the ballot, the fund would be established by a millage.

Michigan law allows sinking funds of up to five mills, which can be levied for up to 20 years. According to district spokesman David Mustonen, asking voters for the money has been talked about for several years.

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“As finances have tightened, it’s been something that been discussed, probably as early as 2005,” said Mustonen. “It’s still in the discussion stage; it’s unlikely that we will see anything on the ballot any time soon.”

But there’s a potentially thorny issue regarding a Wayne County schools proposal that could mean a windfall of $7.3 million for the district. That proposal, for two mills for five years, would require a resolution by districts representing 50 percent of Wayne County’s students that supports the measure.

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Chris Wigent, the superintendent of the Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency, said RESA would not receive funds from the ballot measure, and that the funds, unlike sinking funds, would be unrestricted.

“It could be used for anything School Aid funds can be used for,” he said. “Payroll, improvements–anything.”

If that proposal is approved, the school board is concerned about how a sinking fund request will play with residents, many of whom are experiencing hard economic times.

“We have to be concerned about how it will effect residents,” said Board President Mary Lane.

Wigent said RESA will have a better idea of whether the county proposal will be on the ballot in August, once the county’s 34 school districts have decided to support, or deny, the proposal.

Back in Dearborn, whether the residents would support a county-wide proposal designed to flow revenues into schools, or would support a measure that would pay for improvements, freeing up existing monies currently used for the that purpose for the classroom, remains to be seen.

Residents are not likely to support both, and the board doesn’t want to ask voters for two new taxes.

One possibility is that a ballot proposal could be structured to ask voters to approve a sinking fund only if the county proposal fails.

School funding has been a significant issue since Proposal A was approved by voters in 1994. The provision turned over school funding control in most cases to the state, leaving few tax-based revenue-creating avenues open to local districts.

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