Ingham ISD presents $57 million general fund budget, warns districts of special-education funding changes

Superintendent Jason Mallow of the Ingham Intermediate School District presented the ISD$57,000,000 proposed general fund to Okemos Board of Education trustees and community members, describing revenue, expense and recent state-level changes that have affected ISD funding.

Mallow said the ISDexpects $2.4 million from a 0.19-mill property levy, roughly $2.3 million in federal revenue and large shares from state sources, and highlighted the growth of early-childhood programming in the proposed budget.

The presentation covered three separate ISD budgets (general education, career-technical education and special education) and the timeline required by state law for local boards to act on the ISD general education budget. Mallow said Public Act 234 of 2004 requires the ISD to provide districts with the general education budget before May 1 and allows local districts to submit a resolution of support or disapproval by June 1; ISD boards must adopt their budgets by June 30.

Mallow described drivers of recent year-to-year variation: an unexpected $6 million increase in GSRP (Great Start Readiness Program) funds, an additional approximately $2.6 million in "my secure grant 97 gs" cybersecurity funding the ISD helped secure, and higher substitute-teacher costs. "We were one of the ISDs that was lobbying for that to make sure that there was better cybersecurity protections for districts throughout the state," Mallow said.

On career-technical education, Mallow said federal Perkins funds must be used for CTE programs and noted a new requirement to allocate 0.5 FTE from CTE funds toward additional math supports because countywide math scores for the SAT were below target. The ISD will combine 0.5 FTE of CTE funding with 0.5 FTE of general-education dollars to fund a full-time math support position.

Mallow and trustees also discussed special-education funding. He traced the changes to a state review that identified compliance problems going back to 2018 and noted that litigation over allocation formulas in other ISDs prompted statewide revisions. "Our funding formula was general education dollars determining how special-education dollars flowed. It's not okay," he said, describing a multiyear process to redesign special-education allocations and noting that some districts will see reductions.

Mallow asked member districts to return a resolution of support or disapproval by June 1 so the ISD board can finalize its budget by the end of June. He and trustees emphasized that the ISDwill continue to press state leaders on the impacts of special-education formula changes and to seek options to smooth district-level transitions.

While Mallow framed the proposed budget as conservative and informed by the governor's recommendations and the Senateproposal, he warned that final state action and federal uncertainty could change the local picture and urged districts to plan for possible adjustments.