CLIO -- A bar graph shows the school's future if the problem isn't addressed. "Insolvency" is the word Dr. James Tenbusch, Clio Superintendent uses to describe the potential situation in 2014 if a 2.3 million dollar budget shortfall isn't addressed.
The answer, he says, while "heartbreaking" may be to privatize custodians and bus drivers.
"If we do nothing, this district will be financially insolvent in fiscal year 2014," says Tenbusch.
He says the district has spent 1.5 million from a rainy day fund in the past year, and they will spend another million in the next year to keep things afloat, but he says relying on the fund in the future is "unsustainable budgeting".
He says even if the jobs of 23 bus drivers and around 45 custodians are not privatized there will be layoffs, up to 39 district wide, he says.
But concessions in the custodial contracts, up in June, will be the first step in keeping most of the districts employees, and he says they are hoping the teachers and others will come forward and give up some money for the good of the district as well.
MEA Union Steward Jeremy Acker says they understand the problem. "As long as it is across the board everyone takes their fair share of the reductions and cuts that's understandable," he told NBC25.
Tenbusch told NBC25 there will be a scholarship program in conjunction with Mott Community College that will pay for retraining of workers who are laid off so they can find new jobs regardless of the scenario that unfolds.
