School Year Ahead: Funding, Bond, Facility Updates, and Student Support in Williamston

A Look at the Progress, Challenges, and Bright Future of Williamston Community Schools

As summer winds down, excitement is brewing across the Williamston Community Schools (WCS) district. Parents, students, teachers, and administrators are all gearing up for a new school year, inspired by both recent accomplishments and upcoming plans. Our latest podcast episode delves into the myriad facets of what this school year holds, featuring insights from Dr. Christopher Lewis, a member of the Williamston Community Schools Board of Education, and Dr. Adam Spina, the superintendent of schools. Let's break down the essential topics that were covered.

Recap of the Summer Achievements

Dr. Adam Spina enthusiastically shared insights on the busy yet productive summer season. This period saw substantial behind-the-scenes efforts aimed at ensuring students have an optimal learning environment upon their return.

"Summer was very busy. We accomplished a lot. Looking forward to sharing some of those things at least in this podcast," noted Dr. Spina.

Paving, safety upgrades, custodial work, and more have set the stage for a fresh academic year.

Significant Election Wins for School Funding

One of the most notable pieces of good news for the district was the resounding approval of two critical ballot initiatives during a recent election. The community approved both a bond, commonly known as the "0 mil increase bond proposal," and a restoration of the operating millage back to the full 18 mills.

"This is a big win for the community, for the schools, but it’s all about the kids and getting them access to the appropriate and safe facilities and equipment that they need to have a first-rate educational experience here in Williamston," Dr. Spina emphasized.

Understanding the Bond Timeline

For residents wondering when they’ll start seeing changes, Dr. Spina clarified that planning will occupy most of this school year. Significant visible changes are expected to roll out beginning next summer. The emphasis will be on meticulous planning to avoid costly mistakes once work commences.

The Ongoing Funding Challenge

Despite the wins, the district faces considerable hurdles, primarily due to the state budget’s impact on funding. The state budget for this year has introduced an inequitable funding structure, placing Williamston at a disadvantage compared to other districts in the county.

"Williamston students this year, once you take in all the different attributes of the state budget, would receive a total increase of $173 per student," Dr. Spina explained.

This starkly contrasts with other districts in the county that will receive more substantial increases per pupil.

Essential Projects from the Sinking Fund

The community’s approval of the sinking fund continues to be invaluable. This year’s key projects include essential paving tasks, safety upgrades like new fencing and steel doors, and modernization efforts such as installing filtered bottle fillers in older drinking fountains.

"The sinking fund has been indispensable for Williamston," noted Dr. Spina, with funds also allocated to upgrading safety infrastructure and creating conducive learning environments.

Focus on Mental and Emotional Well-being

An especially innovative project is the creation of a 'calm room' at the High School. This space allows students to decompress and is part of a broader focus on mental well-being.

"Our students contributed directly to this project. There really hasn't been a place for high school kids to decompress, and this room will cater to that need while a trained adult helps them navigate any issues they're dealing with."

Celebrating the Dedicated Teams

The school year wouldn’t be possible without the tireless efforts of the district’s technology and central office teams. From reissuing Chromebooks to ensure each student has access to necessary technology, to implementing a new online enrollment system, these teams have worked tirelessly to streamline operations.

"The tech and central office teams have outdone themselves this summer," Dr. Spina commended, emphasizing how these behind-the-scenes efforts lead to significant benefits for the district.

Looking Forward to a Promising School Year

There’s no denying the challenges ahead. However, both Dr. Lewis and Dr. Spina shine a light on the community’s resilience and commitment to providing a world-class education.

"We are laser-focused on doing great things for kids and looking forward to a great school year. Keep an eye on our newsletters and stay in touch," Dr. Spina concluded.

 

We encourage you to stay connected with our podcast for ongoing updates and to remain engaged with our community efforts. Remember, whether you have children in the district or not, you are a valued member of our Williamston Community Schools family. Let's make this academic year one for the books!

 

TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:20]:
Welcome back to the Hornet Hive. I'm your host, Doctor. Christopher Lewis, one of the members of the Williamston Community Schools Board of Education. Really excited to have you back again this week. And this week, as always, I'm excited to be able to talk about the amazing things that are happening within our schools. And that's what this show is all about, is to bring you in and let you see what is happening in our schools because there are amazing things that are happening in our schools. And we're almost at the end of the summer, and that means it's time to talk about coming back to school. And this week we got Doctor.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:53]:
Adam Spino, superintendent of schools for the Williams State Community Schools, back with us again this week, and we're gonna be chatting about a number of different things. So I'm really excited to have him here and to kick off this brand new school year. Doctor Spina, thanks so much for being back with us this week.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:01:07]:
Thanks, Chris. Summer was very busy. We accomplished a lot. Looking forward to sharing some of those things at least in this podcast, and it went quickly. That said, we're here because we are dedicated to providing a world class education to our students, and so having them back in the schools here shortly is what it's all about, and looking forward to them returning.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:01:25]:
So it's an exciting time to welcome back our staff, welcome back our students, and really get the year kicked off on a positive note. Now talking about positive notes, we just finished up, an election. And in that election, we had 2 different ballot initiatives on the ballot. And we've got some good news for the district. Don't we, doctor Espino?

Dr. Adam Spina [00:01:46]:
So I think as, community members know, we had 2 ballot initiatives that the community considered. The first was a bond, often referred to as a 0 mil increase bond proposal, and the second was a restoration of our operating millage, returning that to the full 18 mills that the state assumes that we're receiving. That will put us back at the full per pupil foundation increase, like almost all other school districts in our area are funded at. Both of those were, resoundingly approved, and I just wanna start, I guess, this episode by conveying my gratitude to the community for supporting kids. This is a big win for the community, for the schools, but it's all about the kids and getting them access to the appropriate and safe facilities and equipment that they need to have 1st grade educational experience here in Williamston. Cannot say enough about how appreciative I am of the support of the volunteers of the community members that assisted throughout the process. And, yeah, it's a good day, a good week for kids in Williamston.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:02:45]:
So I know that now that this has gone past going up to the election, there was a lot of talk about the way in which the funds would be utilized over the many years that we have in the future to be able to work on a number of different projects. And I'm sure that in the minds of people in our community, they're probably saying, when is this all gonna start? When are we gonna see things starting to happen? What's the timeline?

Dr. Adam Spina [00:03:10]:
And that's gonna be, that's gonna be a challenge on our end, but it's also a huge opportunity on our end to start communicating what the next steps are and how will the pieces come together here to accomplish all the goals that the community approved within the bond proposal. The short version is we are gonna be entering into the planning phase for the specific items that were approved throughout this school year. One of the important things to remember is that there's a chicken and egg kinda situation. I know folks wanted specifics, so we wanna get in timelines and see designs and all those things. But we couldn't do that without having the funding to pay the folks to provide that information, those details to us, and we couldn't get the funding until the bond passed. So now that we know the community has supported the bond, we can take the next step to working with our partners, the architects, the engineers, and the construction management firm that we have signed up to work with us on this, we can start actually moving into this level of detail and start getting these things put together. You wanna get You wanna get those things right the first time so that you don't start construction and then realize later that you have to change something, which of course then costs taxpayer money to make changes you're gonna have prevented at the outset through proper planning. So this school year, you're not gonna see bulldozers and construction equipment rolling in for the bond.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:04:32]:
This is about planning, making sure we get it right. In the preceding years, we're gonna start to see those projects come about. Now we do know there's some things that on the draft timeline that, again, needs to be solidified. We haven't even had our first meeting since the bond was approved with our partners on this quite yet. But we do know some things are scheduled on the draft timeline to happen sooner than others, and those items will begin to take place next summer break. So more information will be posted on the website. Obviously, I'll start communicating those things out as they become finalized so the community can see updated timelines and schedules and exactly what will be getting done. But to get to that point, there's more planning that needs to to take place here in the near future.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:05:12]:
So more to follow, but we will get all the things that were on the bond accomplished. We just wanna make sure we do them right the first time.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:05:19]:
Now you mentioned at the very beginning that it's been a busy summer. There are a lot of visible changes around the district that people can see from the outside happened over the summer that people may or may not have seen as they have driven by the buildings, but that the students may be able to see and get a sense of once they enter back into the buildings.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:05:47]:
I always look forward to open house because it's a great opportunity to showcase the work that's been done both at the grounds and outside building inside. So the custodial team and our maintenance team just do an incredible job. I mean, I can't give them enough credit for what they accomplished. And, like, open house is kinda like the showcase day, right, where you bring up families come in, students come in, and they can really see all the hard work that they've put in throughout the summer to get things ready for our students. There are some big ticket items, some things that are more visible than others. We really focused on a lot of paving, driveways, parking areas this summer that aren't connected to some of the renovations that will take place with the bond. So we're really trying to accomplish all those things before the bond work starts. You'll see some updated paving at the high school and the middle school and even at select areas at the elementary campus that won't be impacted by the bond.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:06:33]:
Safety upgrades are always important. We put in some fencing, some new exterior steel doors, window film that's mesh resistant, you know, keep people out of the buildings if they try to come through a window. We have also replaced sprinkler heads at Discovery Elementary. It sounds like a small thing, but that was a big project. Some other items, not necessarily related to safety, select locations have received new flooring. We're in the middle of a high school office renovation. They had a couple hiccups, but that's gonna be done soon. And one of the projects I'm really interested in is the creation of a high school palm room.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:07:04]:
This is kind of a place where students can go to decompress, take a break. It'll have items inside of the room that were selected by high school students last spring, there were a committee where students had a direct impact or direct, opportunity to provide input into what that space would look like. One of the things we found at our high school over the years is that there's not a place for high school kids to decompress. So they need a break. There's really not anywhere for them to go. Or do they have something going on in their lives and they just need space or a place to decompress and relax. We would find students in the bathrooms or the hallway floors. Those aren't safe places and not appropriate places.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:07:40]:
So this calm room's really an opportunity for kids to go to this space. There'll be an adult available that'll help direct them to other resources if they need it. If they don't, they just need to chill out. They can have that opportunity there as well. So we're still working through building that, but when it's done, it's gonna be really nice. And then, obviously, getting the word out in terms of how it works, the students, and facilitating it. But that's one of the summer projects that I'm personally very interested in, and a lot of hard work has gone into as far as setting that up.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:08:05]:
Now as we get ready to start a new year, one of the things that's always a question mark as we enter the new year is the funding of our schools. And a lot of that comes down to what happens at the state level and what the state budget ends up looking like, which is what we tend to then get back into the district per pupil in the district. And going into the summer, a lot of things were up in the air. And over the summer, some of this has become a little bit more clear, but the answers to our district may not have been what we had wanted. And it's probably important for people in our community to understand the impact of the state budget and the decisions about the state budget to our schools in general. Can you give a little bit of an understanding of what happened over this summer and what we're walking into this fall as we look at the state budget and the funding of our schools?

Dr. Adam Spina [00:08:56]:
This is a tricky one, right? Because as an administrator, I'm gonna stay politically neutral. So I don't wanna go down that route one way or the other. In Williamston, for better or worse, we know what it's like here to work with extremely limited resources and a very tight budget because that's just been kind of the recent history of Williamston that we worked really hard to get ourselves into better fiscal shape, and we've accomplished that. This year's state budget, I would say a fair word to use would be disappointing. And I think it's just important that Williamston families get, accurate information because there's a lot of political spin about the budget as far as it pertains to education, and I think people trying to make something that's not good seem better than it is. But just to kinda go through some of the the basic pieces of that, we reached a 0% per pupil foundation increase. Comparing that to charter schools who got, I think, $57,000,000, it equates to something like somewhere between 3 4% increase. We received 0.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:09:52]:
One of the things that I'd already sent some stuff out about in the newsletter that was particularly concerning was the reduction in 31 a a funds. This is the categorical funding from the state that contributed to safety and mental health supports in schools. We knew it was gonna go down this year, but between the governor, the senate, and the house, their lowest estimate, I believe, had that at a $115,000,000 across the state. And so we kinda we took the lowest number and kinda budgeted from there. Unfortunately, that was reduced down to 26,500,000 for the state, so you can and it typically issued out in a per pupil basis. So you can kinda figure that Williamson's gonna be getting a very low number there to continue some of our safety and mental health initiatives. There are some other pieces that will come into play. There's some reductions, one time reductions in terms of the amount of money that the district has to pay into the retirement system, and they made some tweaks in some other categorical areas.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:10:42]:
But I think the best way to summarize this is we have an analysis put together by the Michigan Education Association and the Michigan School of Business officials, 2 different associations that have their finance people take a breakdown of what the budget actually means. And I guess this is the most important part for Williamson families to be aware of, is in a district that has historically been funded at a disproportionately low amount on a per pupil basis, although, again, to give fairness, that has been mostly corrected in a lot of ways over the last few years, not entirely solved, but mostly corrected. This year's budget really goes back to that idea of inequitable funding based on the district that your child goes to. And just looking at the county based on this analysis by the MEA and MSBL, Williamston students this year, once you take in all the different attributes of the state budget, would receive a total increase of $173 per student. Again, that's a 0% per pupil foundation increase, but you're drawing money from some of the retirement cost savings and some of the other different categorical funding. So it's a $173 increase that equals out to about 1.8%. There's another district in our county who is gonna receive $354 per student, a 3.54% increase. And that district is also funded.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:11:55]:
Their per pupil foundation increase is also more than $300, almost $400 more a student than Williams does. In fact, in the county, we are the 3rd lowest in terms of per pupil funding from this budget than all the other districts in Ingham County. So ranging from a high of $354 to a low of 118, we're at 173. So that's the point that I wanna kinda bring out with the budget is that one of the things the state has struggled with is this idea of equitable funding across the board, for years, going back decades all the way to proposal a and actually even before that. And this year's budget unfortunately goes back to that same concept of unequal funding. And, fortunately, Williamston students are at the low end of that, and I just feel like that's something that our families here in Williamston Lewiston should be aware of. Despite what you might read in the headlines, it was not an equitable budget, and we ended up at the bottom of that. Now we're gonna make things work.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:12:45]:
We're used to working with limited resources and going above and beyond to provide that world class education I talked about previously. But I do think it's important to kinda cut through the spin and give accurate data to Williamson's families, just so you know what we're working with here.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:12:58]:
You know, one of the follow ups that I wanna ask you about with that is that you talk about where we're at versus where other districts are at within the district. And there is this discrepancy, this inconsistency, the kind of the haves and the have nots of districts that are getting a lot more and some that are getting less. Can you explain or give any insight into why our district is getting so little funding versus others getting so much more funding per student? It's

Dr. Adam Spina [00:13:29]:
a complicated question, and I think you could probably ask 10 people that work in the education field that are knowledgeable about how the state budget is put together, you could get different answers. I mean, the quick answer is that different different variables are used, different calculations based on different types of things, like your annual payroll budget, the amount of students you have, your number of students that are considered at risk. There's a lot of these different variables. When you put them all into the system and then kinda kick them back out depending on how you weight these variables, the funding levels will vary considerably. And there's not even agreement I mean, I gave you the analysis from the MEA MSBO analysis. If you're you know, there's other analyses that are out there from different entities, including the state legislature that give different numbers. And so it's hard to specify exactly why, but it's really the variables that go into figuring out the formula that equate to the final result. If you change those variables, then the funding number numbers would inevitably different, but that's what they are.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:14:24]:
Like I said, there's arguably reasons for that. Maybe some of them are valid reasons, but the reason that we really wanna just dive into this is, again, I think it's important for Williamson families to understand when you see headlines or you hear elected officials talk about the state budget that it's not equitable, and that their children are receiving fewer dollars from the state than pretty much all other students, with a couple exceptions to other districts in our county. Again, I wanna be clear, we're not in a crisis. I don't want anybody to feel bad for us. We're ready for this. We've done a great job over the last many years of building up our fund balance to be prepared for contingencies. We're not cutting staff. In fact, we added positions this year to support kids.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:15:04]:
But long term, if this isn't addressed, money's money, and we might be able to look at some potential changes long term if the state state doesn't do something different. With that said, there's nothing to be worried about this year. We're in good shape. We have the appropriate staff, and we have the right people in. We're not we're not laying people off like you see might be occurring in other districts around the state. We really are set up for success, and we're gonna make sure kids get what they need here. But again, I just wanna reiterate that we wanna make sure Williamson families have that right information, that we are getting well below the average of what the state is issuing out to students and districts this coming year based on their current budget.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:15:39]:
When we're talking about funding, one of the other pieces of funding that many people know about is that our community came together a number of years back to fund our sinking fund. And the sinking fund goes into providing funding to be able to up keep the district in a number of different ways, and there's lots of different projects that fall within that. Doctor Spina, do you wanna talk a little bit about the sinking fund, where we're at, and some of the projects that we may be seeing for this upcoming year?

Dr. Adam Spina [00:16:11]:
So sinking fund has been invaluable to Williams Sten, and, we have again, every year, we put it to great use, and then we post the things that are done with it on the website. So you can see the budget summary, the running budget balance, and then photos of the different projects that take place. So we wanna be very transparent with the sinking fund so that community members can see the return on their investment. Specifically, for this summer's funds that were implemented, a lot of it, like I said earlier, one of the some of the paving projects, parking lot and driveway repairs, That was roughly $240,000 approximately half of this year's allocation for the sinking fund. Some other items included repairs to sidewalks, some of the flooring projects, repairing the, pieces of the football field and the press box. If you've ever been up there, the windows were actually getting pretty dangerous, in terms of not being able to stay open. And then some safety pieces, such as putting some fencing in. There's a huge chiller outside my office here actually by the preschool.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:17:14]:
We put safety fencing around that. So and there's some other things too. So once that budget's finalized for the work that was done this summer, which will be here actually probably in the next few weeks. We'll get that all those things, posted as well. I guess one other sinking fund project too that's important to notice, bottle fillers, filtered bottle fillers, replacing drinking fountains. This is a project that we're old drinking fountains. This is a project we've been working on for 5 or 6 years. Work continued throughout the summer and is actually ongoing now.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:17:39]:
Continue to replace old drinking fountains with filtered bottle fillers throughout the district. So that's another freaking fun item. The other thing I wanna go back to as far as budget too to just bring up, some folks might wonder, well, you just passed the bond. You should have plenty of money. And the bond's fantastic, but I just wanna remind folks that the bond can't be used for operational expenses. It only can cover the facilities and equipment items that were articulated in the actual bond and in the ballot language. So can't use the bond to operate your schools, that includes paying the utility bills, paying salaries, benefits, any of those types of things. It doesn't cover that.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:18:13]:
So just wanna be clear on that. The annual state budget has an impact on us operationally. The bond, long term, is upgrading our facilities in a meaningful way that'll make those safe and appropriate for our students. But there's 2 different pieces there, and I just wanted to make sure we covered that.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:18:27]:
And we are at the beginning of the new school year, and it's always exciting to kick off the year strong. Doctor Spino, what do you have to say to all the students coming back, to the staff coming back as we're entering this new school year? 

Dr. Adam Spina [00:18:39]:
Well, I want to give a quick shout out to our our technology department before we get off the recording here. They did just an incredible job over the summer. A lot of that stuff is behind the scenes. People don't see it, but reissuing Chromebooks so every student at Explore will have a device to use on a daily basis while they're at school. They won't take them home like they do with the secondary, but they'll have access to those. Installing additional wireless access points. They have done a ton of cyber safety upgrades. They've been super busy all summer, and I wanna give them a shout out for everything they've done, including some of the safety upgrades, some things I didn't mention earlier, like our Zero Rise gun detection system, all the legwork that has to be done to to set that up, upgrading security cameras, things along those lines.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:19:18]:
And then lastly, I also wanna give a shout out to our central office team. We've gone to this online EnrollNet system this year, which is a big sea change. They have put in a ton of hours getting this set up and working. I can tell you as a parent, having done it with my own child last week, saved a ton of time for me. And I know moving forward, when you only have to make updates in future years instead of filling out the 25 pieces of colored paper, that's gonna save me time as well. But more importantly, it's providing real time accurate information to our buildings, and it'll keep those systems up and current for our students, which will lead to a lot of efficiencies and, quite frankly, safety enhancements throughout the district as well with having that that real time accurate information. So great job, by those 2, departments as well. I just wanna make sure I acknowledge that.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:20:01]:
Otherwise, you know, we are really looking forward to the school year. All the hard work over the summer sets us up hopefully for success as we get our our instructional staff and our students back. The last many years, Williamston continues to set the standard for what a high functioning educational institution can accomplish. We are laser focused on doing great things for kids and really looking forward to getting back to why we're here, which is to provide that world class education. So it's gonna be a great school year. Please continue to read the newsletters that go out for both the district and the school to contact us with questions. I love getting emails and phone calls if there's something that you're worried about. I'd love to talk through those things with you, and that's a very effective way of communicating and look forward to those opportunities with our stakeholders throughout the school year.

Dr. Adam Spina [00:20:43]:
So it's gonna be a great one. Go Hornets, and stay in touch.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:20:45]:
Well, as always, thank you for joining us today to learn more about the Williamston Community Schools and all the amazing things that are happening within the district. As doctor Spina said, reach out if you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, thoughts, whatever it may be. Reach out. Get those questions answered. Make sure that you are informed, and come back for our next episode. We definitely want you to be able to keep informed about the things that are happening, whether you have kids in our district or not. We love you staying connected to what is happening within our schools because you are a part of our district, whether you have kids in the district or not. Thanks so much for listening.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:21:24]:
Have a great day.