Jim Witt, superintendent of Lake schools, used a moment in a brief presentation at Tuesday’s meeting of the Lake Township trustees to try to squelch a rumor about the school district’s finances.

Revenues from a 4.75-mill, 5-year operating levy, if passed, won’t be used to help fund the high school building currently under construction, he said.

Lake voters will decide the levy Nov. 8.

Witt emphasized that operating revenues can’t be used for building purposes and the district won’t even be implementing new programs if voters do approve the levy, which would generate about $1.1 million annually.

School officials plan to have the new high school open for the 2012-13 school year. High school students attend classes in a leased facility on Tracy Road.

“We will maintain what we have now,” he said, adding the additional local revenues would be used to offset a loss of funding from the state, which is projected to be $2.19 million over the 2012-13 biennium budget.

Reduced property values – and the resulting loss of tax revenues from property tax collections – have also cut into the school district’s coffers, Witt said. As a consequence, the administration and school board have reduced spending in the past two years by about $1.3 million.

“We feel we’ve done as much as we can do to offset the loss,” he said.

Nathan Eikost, a school board member, said the district, as measured by a state report card, is excelling in academics despite the loss of revenues.

“Essentially, we’re doing more with less,” he said.

The trustees Tuesday approved requests from Mike Leslie, a patrol officer in the police department, and Gary Schulte, cemetery sexton, for leaves as allowed under the Family Medical Leave Act.

Their jobs will be retained for them during their leaves, which will be in effect up to 12 weeks.

The trustees met in executive session to discuss the township policy for allowing employees to roll over accrued vacation time to the next year but took no action.

Election contests
Eikost won’t be seeking another term on the school board but is a candidate for a seat on Walbridge Village Council. With his departure from the board and the decision by incumbent Margene Akenberger to not run again, the race for two seats is uncontested. John Ervin and Scott Swartz are the only candidates for the seats.

Melanie Bowen, who chairs the board of trustees, is being contested for one seat on the board by Jeff Pettit.

Vicki Schwamberger, the township fiscal officer, is uncontested in her bid to return to the office.

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