HANCOCK - The recent cuts in school funding have caused school officials throughout the state to rethink their budgets for this year, and predictions of even deeper cuts next year are making them wonder if some school districts will be able to survive.

Local school district administrators are frustrated with legislators for taking so long to decide on school-aid funding, and disappointed Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed a school budget Oct. 19, which included cuts of $165 per pupil from the state foundation grant.

Monica Healy, superintendent of Hancock Public Schools and Hancock Middle School principal, said with the $165-per-pupil cut, the schools will lose about $135,000. The budget was set in June, which means because of the cuts in state funding, some changes may have to be made.

"A quarter of the way through our year they made the cuts," she said. "We've started our program. We have to look back at the budget we made in June and look where to make $135,000 in cuts."

Healy said the budget was made with the expectation of losing a few students, but the district actually gained a few. However, those few extra students won't compensate for the loss of $165 per pupil.

"When we gained students, we should have gained more revenue, but we didn't," she said.

Granholm said she will make cuts of another $127 per pupil on Nov. 21 if legislators don't come up with other revenue sources for school aid, which Healy said will make planning even more difficult.

"It's hard to do a budget when you don't know what your revenue is," she said.

During the past year, former Superintendent John Vaara and the board of education worked to reduce the district's $800,000 deficit. Despite those savings, Healy said the cut in state aid will make continued reduction of the deficit difficult.

"We keep filling in this hole little by little, and the state empties it by the shovels full," she said. "We're chipping away at our deficit."

Healy said with the current cuts in state aid, and possible future cuts, she's going to have to consider other cost reductions in the district, including extra-curricular activities, personnel changes and even how the district buses students.

"We're going to have to look across the board," she said. "The last thing we would look at cutting is anything that affects the learning of kids,"

The Public Schools of Calumet, Laurium & Keweenaw is the largest local district in the CCISD, and Superintendent Darryl Pierce said the $165 per-pupil cut in state aid means the district will lose about $250,000, and with the possible additional cut of $127 per pupil, the district could lose about $440,000 for this school year.

"With the looming $127, we're going to look at possible cuts at the semester break," Pierce said. "Right now everything's on the table."

Pierce said legislators in both parties are using the state's fiscal crisis to position themselves for next year's elections, and it's hurting the state, particularly schools.

"This is a lot of political maneuvering," he said.

Because of Proposal A, passed by Michigan voters in 1994, most school districts can't request millages for operating expenses, which is hurting many districts, and Pierce said that system will probably be changed within a year and a half.

"We can't continue in education the way we're going now," he said. "We have no other mechanism to generate revenue (other that state aid, which provides 90 percent of school funding)."

Pierce said because of the condition of the state's economy, he doesn't anticipate much improvement in the school-funding situation in the near future.

"If there was a glimmer of hope for the next four or five years, I'd be optimistic," he said.

Craig Sundblad, Lake Linden-Hubbell Public Schools K-12 principal and interim superintendent, said the district had some fund equity, so the board of education thought they could deal with the $165 per pupil cut in state aid.

"We felt we could absorb it in out budget," he said.

In the past, Sundblad said the district saved money by not replacing some faculty and staff who retired or left the district.

"We have made cuts, but we have been able to do it without cutting staff," he said.

However, if there is another cut in aid of $127 per pupil, Sundblad said other cuts throughout the district will have to be considered.

"If you have to make cuts, you have to look at everything," he said. "We haven't gotten to that point."

There have been predictions of another $500 to $800 per pupil cuts in state aid next year, and Healy said if that happens, she's uncertain what that would mean for schools.

"That would be devastating for several districts," she said.

Healy said this is a difficult time for school districts, but school officials have to work with what they have.

"We're just going to have to go ahead and do the best job we can," she said.

Kurt Hauglie can be reached at khauglie@mininggazette.com.