BIG RAPIDS —The Crossroads Charter Academy administration is looking to save in the new school year, according to projections in its initial 2024-25 budget.

Dominic Pace, board president, said the big change impacting the budget will be the consolidation of the schools.

“That will give us a savings of nearly $200,000 because of staffing and building use,” Pace said. “It allows us to put kids in a much newer facility. The middle school/high school building definitely has the student capacity and has air conditioning. It lets everybody be under one roof, which allows for better use of administration, staffing, cleaning and so many other things. From a numbers standpoint that seems like a very logical thing to do.”

Pace said the consolidation of the building also sets up nicely for the separation of grade populations.

The administration has utilized a conservative approach to the budget, according to Pace.

“We understand that a number of our schools in our surrounding districts have had decreasing student populations and that Crossroads is no different from that,” Pace said. “We are being conservative in our planning so that way, we don’t get into a situation where we have over planned but (don’t) yet have the student count to be able to support those plans.”

According to CCA’s initial 2024-25 general fund budget projections, the school estimated a revenue total of just over $3.1 million — an 18% decrease from the 2023-24 final budgets.

Pace said the first budget for the year is preliminary and will go through several rounds of revision throughout the year as financial factors change.

He said the district is also expecting a number of grants that will provide support for programming and other needs.

“There’s a lot of state federal grants that haven’t been awarded yet,” Pace said. “There’s so many of them that we have and they’re the type of expense where you have to expend the money and then you get reimbursed for it. We just budgeted very conservatively based on the things that we know. We feel very confident in our student count number for next year.”

According to a July 1 news release from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office, the state administration’s budget makes direct investments in Michigan’s students, allocating $598 million in ongoing payments to school districts across the state.

The payments are equivalent to a 4% increase per pupil, representing an average $400 per pupil increase over FY2024. In total, Whitmer has increased per-pupil funding by 26% since taking office.

Pace said early budgets often don’t have key information to determine official numbers.

“The June budget is a preliminary best guess on information that you don’t have, which is kind of an unfortunate thing,” Pace said. “It is very important as we’re planning for the future of how much money we have to allocate for things. My best guess is that once we get closer to the beginning of school starting we will see more information come through from Lansing, and even from the federal government, to see what grant programs might be carrying over from last year to this year. Then, we’ll be able to use those funds and allocate them and plan for some more things.”

STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

Maintaining student numbers is another focus for the administration, according to Pace.

He said staffing is looking solid for the fall.

“We have had some teacher turnover this last year, as we do from year to year," Pace said, adding that as of recently there was only one part-time teacher open. "That’s one of the things that all charter schools deal with — once a teacher reaches a certain level, they always have the option to look at other job positions.”

Pace said in terms of salary the district does occasionally find itself priced out of the expectations of more experienced teachers but does have some teachers on staff who have been with their school for 15-20 years.

He said the CCA administration is supportive of teachers who want to pursue career advancement.

“Ultimately, we know that they are highly qualified, they’re highly caring about our students,” Pace said. “We want to see our staff succeed just as much as we do our kids. I know we have an incoming crop of a few teachers that are passionate and excited about being able to spend time building into and teaching the kids at Crossroads.”

Pace also said student numbers are in a good place, but that CCA is always looking for new families to serve.

Placing a new superintendent will be another step for the administration to begin to move ahead with plans for fall, according to Pace.

“I think administratively we are looking for the next person to be able to really get a good handle on the culture that we have at Crossroads,” Pace said. “The community at Crossroads has been the thing in the last 25 years that has kept families, kept teachers (and) kept students here. There’s something different about a Crossroads student than what we find with other students in our district. It’s a positive, and it’s something that we hope will continue to trickle down from our leadership right down to the students.”

Pace said one of the things the administration is focused on is the character-based education and making sure that is something taught in (K-12) and reinforced, as well as exemplified by the leadership and administration.

“From an educational standpoint, we’re excited about whoever the next person is, being able to work with the staff that we currently have and help them really to see that that vision and that mission of the school and live it out in their day-to-day teachings and the influence they have over the kids in our community,” he said.

The next scheduled CCA board of education meeting is at 5:30 p.m. July 10 at 215 N. State St. in Big Rapids.

For more information on CCA and its board of education, visit: www.ccabr.org.