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Education is a big issue in northern Michigan, whether we're reporting on school funding issues to breakthroughs in the classroom.

Special ed funding will likely shrink in Traverse City schools

Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District

The Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District plans to give out fewer dollars this year to local schools, like Traverse City Area Public Schools, for special education.

This funding is extra money for schools, drawn from the Intermediate School District's fund balance – and doesn't affect the many services provided to school districts by the ISD.

But Paul Soma, superintendent of Traverse City Area Public Schools, says the ISD is not giving enough money to local schools.

He says the ISD is sitting on tens of million of dollars, which should be spent on special education classrooms.

"Our fundamental issue is that those dollars are not serving the needs of the children of our region while they're sitting in a bank account of the ISD," says Soma.

TCAPS received about $700,000 from the ISD over the 2014-15 school year, but would get less than $350,000 this year under the preliminary budget. Under the current forecast, the ISD would not pay out any money to TCAPS in 2016.

Soma was the only superintendent to vote 'no' on the ISD's budget plan when superintendents met last month to discuss the issue.

The ISD is in year two of a five-year plan to reduce its fund balance by distributing extra money to districts. The five-year plan was developed based on recommendations from the region's superintendents three years ago, with a goal of getting the ISD's fund balance to 30 percent.

"We are implementing that recommendation based on the superintendents," says ISD superintendent Mike Hill. "So naturally there would be a decrease in the disbursement for our local districts based on those recommendations."

Last year, the ISD transferred about $1.7 million to local schools. This year, that number will likely be just over $1 million, as the ISD begins closing in on a fund balance of 30 percent.

The Intermediate School District's board of education will vote to finalize the budget next week.