APS Slowly Emerging from the Woods

From today's Beacon Journal comes more good news that the masses won't believe. Akron Public Schools is restoring some of the programs they cut when money was tight and voters rejected two levies. They had cut instrumental music and foreign language instructions in middle school grades. In a comprimise move, they are restoring instrumental music down to fifth grade -- but not fourth -- and foreign languages to eighth grade -- but not seventh.

Much of the change is thanks to some happy news over which the district has little control:

The revised five-year financial forecast approved by board members also shows a much lower deficit for the 2010-11 school year: $6.5 million.

That compares with a $22 million deficit that had been projected for 2010-11 earlier this year.

Much of the decrease involves medical costs, Pierson said. He said health insurance premiums are not expected to rise as much as initially anticipated.

The more I learn about the five year forecast requirement, the less I like it. A school's budget has to balance five years out based on projections that are nearly impossible to make. And the kicker: if school business officials make the wrong call in either direction, the district looks incompetent and the voters lose that much more faith.