LADY BUDGETDOWN: WHEN THE REVENUE GOES UP... SO CAN THE PRINCIPALS' PAY
Dear readers, a rather interesting breadcrumb arrived in the Lady Budgetdown inbox this morning.
The instructions were wonderfully specific:
Lakeview Public Schools. Macomb County. Principals' contract. Pages 17–19.
Well....... You simply cannot hand Lady Budgetdown page numbers like that and expect the ledger to remain closed.
So off I went.
And tucked inside Lakeview's 2023–2027 principals' contract is something called:
"Salary Schedule Addition — Revenue Impact."
That sounds terribly innocent.
Until you read it.
Lakeview's principals have a salary formula that ties additional increases in their salary schedule to increases in certain district revenues.
As qualifying revenue climbs, so does the potential wage adjustment.
📌 At $1.55 million: 1.5%.
📌 At $1.8 million: 2%.
📌 At $2.03 million: 2.5%.
📌 At $2.28 million: 3%.
📌 At $2.53 million: 3.5%.
📌 At $2.78 million: 4%.
📌 At $3.18 million: 4.5%.
📌 And at $3.58 million: 5%.
And these increases can occur along with normal movement on the salary schedule.
Naturally, Lady Budgetdown had one question:
What, precisely, counts as "revenue"?
That is where the quill stopped.
Because the contract specifically includes changes in:
📜 Property-tax revenue
📜 30% of Section 31A At-Risk revenue
📜 40% of Special Education Headlee Obligation 51C revenue
📜 Certain unrestricted countywide or regional millage revenue
Yes. Lady Budgetdown read the middle two twice as well.
Now, before anyone gallops three counties ahead of the receipts, an important distinction:
This contract does NOT establish that principals are simply being handed special-education or At-Risk dollars as bonuses. That would be an inaccurate way to describe it.
What the contract DOES say is that increases in specified portions of those revenue streams are included in the formula used to determine the principals' wage adjustment.
And apparently the contract decided one interesting formula was insufficient.
There is also a fund-balance provision.
The agreement says the Board believes the district's fund balance should be grown toward 8–10% of operating expenses. It then provides for off-schedule payments at certain higher fund-balance levels, with a 2% off-schedule payment when the fund-balance percentage exceeds 16%.
So naturally I went looking for Lakeview's current fund balance. The district's June 30, 2025 audit reported a General Fund balance of approximately $9.46 million.
But Lakeview's final 2025–26 budget projects that balance falling to approximately $4.19 million by June 30, 2026, roughly 6.2% of projected General Fund revenue.
In other words, Lakeview is currently projected to be nowhere near that 16% trigger.
And the adopted 2026–27 budget projects the General Fund balance falling a little further, to approximately $3.92 million.
So no, this is not a post announcing that principals are currently collecting a 2% fund-balance payment.
It is something I find much more interesting:
A look at how the compensation formula itself was negotiated. Because I spend an awful lot of time following money after it has been spent.
Every once in a while, someone hands me a contract that shows how the money was agreed to be calculated before it ever reaches the ledger.
And when increases in At-Risk funding and Special Education Headlee revenue appear inside a principal salary-adjustment formula?
Well.
That earns pages 17–19 a little yellow flag in Lady Budgetdown's ledger.
My thanks to the reader who sent this one.
The double take was warranted.
👑 Lady Budgetdown
With receipts and respect.
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