Zeeland Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Lynn VanKampen goes over the district’s 2026-27 budget with the Board of Education Monday night. VanKampen is retiring at the end of the month after having served as CFO for the district for the past 12 years.
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
Zeeland Public Schools have eliminated 22 positions – nine teaching jobs, 12 support staff and a high school administrative position – as part of about $5.4 million in cuts to the district’s 2026-27 budget.
Even with those reductions, ZPS expects to dip into its reserves by about $6 million during the fiscal year that gets underway July 1.
The district’s Board of Education Monday approved on a 6-0 vote a $102,570,870 general fund spending plan that projects another enrollment decline for the school year that begins Sept. 2.
ZPS is expected to end the current fiscal year June 30 having used nearly $5.82 million of its rainy-day fund, reducing those reserves to $14,487,480, representing 14.8% percent of its expenditures. If the budget shortfall for 2026-27 plays out as projected, those reserves could be reduced to $8,486,910, or 8.7% of expenditures, by the end of the next fiscal year, ZPS Chief Financial Officer Lynn VanKampen said.
The nine teaching jobs that have been eliminated represent positions that were vacated by retirement at the end of the past school year, while the support staff cuts will involve layoffs of current staff, VanKampen said after the meeting.
While the district is forecasting a $250 per-pupil increase in funding from the state to $10,300 per student in 2026-27 – lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer must still come to an agreement on an education budget – ZPS is forecasting an enrollment drop of 152 students from the 2025-26 school year, VanKampen said.
“What we don’t know at the initial budget are (the actual) student count, state aid and grant funds,” said VanKampen, who is retiring from her role as chief financial officer at the end of this month after 12 years in that capacity.
ZPS’ projected enrollment in the fall is 5,709 students, down from 5,861 during the 2025-26 school year. The district has seen its enrollment fall more than 600 students from its enrollment peak of 6,354 in the 2018-19 school year.
VanKampen said the enrollment decline reflects a general trend of enrollment declines in districts across the state, as fewer students are entering kindergarten than the previous year’s high school graduating classes.
“The demographics aren’t in our favor. We knew this was coming for several years, from research,” Secretary Chad Creevy said. “It’s not surprising.”
The enrollment decline would be even greater if it weren’t for the increased number of students from outside the district boundaries that have enrolled at ZPS through the school of choice option. Since the 2018-19 school year, the percentage of students coming to Zeeland from outside the district has grown from 17.5% to 20.6%, VanKampen said.
“Zeeland continues to be a destination district,” VanKampen said.
Board members also aren’t surprised by the financial challenges the district is facing.
“I did talk to our auditors, and they said three-quarters of the districts that they deal with are going through the same issues that we are,” Treasurer Tom Den Herder said. “It’s nothing unique to us.”
ZPS Superintendent Rod Hetherton cited financial challenges in March as a rationale for restructuring the district’s specialty programs, including cutting the gifted and talented program at Woodbridge Elementary School and closing the ZQuest project-based learning school.
As part of that restructuring, ZPS created a new project-based learning program called Z-PBL, consolidated its Spanish immersion program into a single building at Lincoln Elementary and established new extension programs for fourth- and fifth-graders – titled 4E and 5E – at their home elementary buildings.
Other cuts adopted by the board as part of the new budget include:
• Removing permanent substitute teachers from each building, a measure that ZPS adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic where each school had one permanent sub that was paid at a premium over the typical substitute pay, using federal COVID relief funds;
• Eliminating the high school dean of students position;
• Removal of temporary teaching contracts;
• Removing most overload contracts for secondary staff and Spanish immersion staff;
• Cutting more than $464,000 from enhancement for technology and buses, a figure that’s expected to be made up using proceeds from the bond issue that voters approved last November, VanKampen said.
Zeeland Record
Zeeland Public Schools have eliminated 22 positions – nine teaching jobs, 12 support staff and a high school administrative position – as part of about $5.4 million in cuts to the district’s 2026-27 budget.
Even with those reductions, ZPS expects to dip into its reserves by about $6 million during the fiscal year that gets underway July 1.
The district’s Board of Education Monday approved on a 6-0 vote a $102,570,870 general fund spending plan that projects another enrollment decline for the school year that begins Sept. 2.
ZPS is expected to end the current fiscal year June 30 having used nearly $5.82 million of its rainy-day fund, reducing those reserves to $14,487,480, representing 14.8% percent of its expenditures. If the budget shortfall for 2026-27 plays out as projected, those reserves could be reduced to $8,486,910, or 8.7% of expenditures, by the end of the next fiscal year, ZPS Chief Financial Officer Lynn VanKampen said.
The nine teaching jobs that have been eliminated represent positions that were vacated by retirement at the end of the past school year, while the support staff cuts will involve layoffs of current staff, VanKampen said after the meeting.
While the district is forecasting a $250 per-pupil increase in funding from the state to $10,300 per student in 2026-27 – lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer must still come to an agreement on an education budget – ZPS is forecasting an enrollment drop of 152 students from the 2025-26 school year, VanKampen said.
“What we don’t know at the initial budget are (the actual) student count, state aid and grant funds,” said VanKampen, who is retiring from her role as chief financial officer at the end of this month after 12 years in that capacity.
ZPS’ projected enrollment in the fall is 5,709 students, down from 5,861 during the 2025-26 school year. The district has seen its enrollment fall more than 600 students from its enrollment peak of 6,354 in the 2018-19 school year.
VanKampen said the enrollment decline reflects a general trend of enrollment declines in districts across the state, as fewer students are entering kindergarten than the previous year’s high school graduating classes.
“The demographics aren’t in our favor. We knew this was coming for several years, from research,” Secretary Chad Creevy said. “It’s not surprising.”
The enrollment decline would be even greater if it weren’t for the increased number of students from outside the district boundaries that have enrolled at ZPS through the school of choice option. Since the 2018-19 school year, the percentage of students coming to Zeeland from outside the district has grown from 17.5% to 20.6%, VanKampen said.
“Zeeland continues to be a destination district,” VanKampen said.
Board members also aren’t surprised by the financial challenges the district is facing.
“I did talk to our auditors, and they said three-quarters of the districts that they deal with are going through the same issues that we are,” Treasurer Tom Den Herder said. “It’s nothing unique to us.”
ZPS Superintendent Rod Hetherton cited financial challenges in March as a rationale for restructuring the district’s specialty programs, including cutting the gifted and talented program at Woodbridge Elementary School and closing the ZQuest project-based learning school.
As part of that restructuring, ZPS created a new project-based learning program called Z-PBL, consolidated its Spanish immersion program into a single building at Lincoln Elementary and established new extension programs for fourth- and fifth-graders – titled 4E and 5E – at their home elementary buildings.
Other cuts adopted by the board as part of the new budget include:
• Removing permanent substitute teachers from each building, a measure that ZPS adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic where each school had one permanent sub that was paid at a premium over the typical substitute pay, using federal COVID relief funds;
• Eliminating the high school dean of students position;
• Removal of temporary teaching contracts;
• Removing most overload contracts for secondary staff and Spanish immersion staff;
• Cutting more than $464,000 from enhancement for technology and buses, a figure that’s expected to be made up using proceeds from the bond issue that voters approved last November, VanKampen said.
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