Elect John Cruz

From the top down, we need checks and balances on finances. We need to spend wisely and look for places where we can eliminate unncessessary spending and cut the fat to become a lean financial district.

These are the steps we need to take to be more financially secure:

• Perform a full audit of the school system. One of the first things on the list after the election will be to estabish the budget for the next school year. During that time we need to see what services can be improved on, privitized, updated or simply eliminated. This will give us room to allocate funds to other areas of the budget that need them.
• Look for new ways to raise funds in the district. We have a beautiful auditorium that seats over a thousand people, there is no reason why the district can’t make money by using this as a venue to host music groups, comedians, etc. Not only will this bring money into the district, but will allow the High School secondary complex to be another hot spot in Mount Clemens, bringing in money for the city through public parking as well as local businesses as people assemble for dinner before a show or drinks afterward. We used to have community theater shows come through our auditorium. We can do it again, only on a much larger scale.
• Begin teaching fiscal responsibility to the students starting in elementary school. The state of our economy today is a fine example of what happens when people don’t understand how to financially run their lives. We send these students out in to a world of credit cards, student loans, and banking. Yet most of them will not even know how to balance their checkbooks. This has to stop and we have the power to make it happen.  This needs to be integrated into the curriculum starting with elementary schools and the basics of saving money.
• Keep the budget balanced at all costs. There is no reason why we should ever be in the red. Ever. Each member of the school board has that responsibility, it’s time we all took it seriously.