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The Lapeer School District is Facing a Significant Financial Deficit
Mary Drier
Sun, 01 Mar 2026 11:17:22 EST
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The Lapeer Community School District's Board of Education will have to make some difficult decisions over the next few months.
The next board of education meeting will be at 7 p.m. on March 4 in the Administrative Center at 250 2nd St. in Lapeer.
During the 2025 - 2026 academic year, district officials knew there would be a significant financial deficit, but it has been determined that an even larger deficit is now looming.
Back in June 2025 when the budget was created, it was estimated the district would have to use about $2.4 million of its fund equity to balance the budget.
Since that estimate, the deficit has increased to between $3 million to $4 million.
Because of that district officials are looking at ways to trim expenses. At the top of the list is closing some schools.
The district has 13 buildings and the proposed plan for the 2027 - 2028 school year is to only operate eight as a way to save some money and to sell some of the buildings.
To go along with that, grades levels will have to be reassigned to different schools.
Doing that will require a lot of planning, coordination, and compromise.
Superintendent Matt Wandrie notified residents about the challenges the district is facing and that feedback would be sought from the community.
Although operational expenses have skyrocketed, a key financial factor is the steady decline in the number of students as well as students transitioning to virtual learning which freed up classroom space.
The district hired a construction company to do a comprehensive study of the district.
For more information, the district's budget development presentation is available for the public to view at www.lapeerschools.org/page/presentations-to-board.
