MCS holds town hall on CTE millage, answers questions
Image from WISD’s CTE millage proposal presentation.
by Colleen A. Schoenfeld
On September 29, 2025, Manchester Community School District (MCS) Superintendent Steven Head held a town hall event, open to the public, to inform the community about an upcoming millage that will be on the November 4 ballot this fall. The millage is to support Career Technical Education (CTE) programs in the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD).
According to the WISD, CTE “is an educational approach where students learn by doing, combining traditional, rigorous academic concepts with practical and technical skills. Through CTE, students explore their interests and skills and then eventually match them to high-wage, high-skill, in-demand career pathways, such as: healthcare, automotive technology, engineering, robotics, entrepreneurship, construction trades, cybersecurity, computer programming, aviation and aerospace, business, finance and marketing, agriscience, and more.”
Head went on to explain that most Michigan counties already have a dedicated millage to support CTE (over 73% of counties), but Washtenaw is one of the few counties that do not currently have a millage to support their local county CTE programs. This lack of dedicated funding is a significant added burden to our district as we have to divert general funds from the district budget to relieve gaps in funding. There had been some grant funding, including through Michigan Department of Education (MDE) and other state funding, for our students, but many of those grants have ended and are not being continued, and the detailed state budget had not been released as of the town hall, explaining how much, if any, funding will be provided by the state for CTE in the future.
The proposed 1.0 millage would provide an estimated $25 million a year to the WISD and would be in effect for 10 years, should voters support and pass the millage. MCS spends over $325,000 of general funds annually to support our CTE programs and students. Those funds could remain in the general fund to support other programs and initiatives across MCS if the millage funding is secured by WISD voters. MCS would also benefit significantly from the reimbursement costs provided by the millage, of transportation costs for CTE, which has been a significant challenge for MCS due to driver and bus availability. The millage reimbursement would open more opportunities to our students to travel to other districts for a wider variety of programming. He shared there are already programs that exist in Saline schools that our students could take advantage of with access to transportation that we currently are limited in participating in, because of the inability to fund adequate transportation to Saline.
Head shared that WISD does not plan to build a centralized facility to house CTE programming, as some districts, like his previous district, have built, but instead intends to support hubs across the county and boost the excellent programs already in existence in the county school districts. There are several opportunities for Manchester to become a hub with our currently strong programs (potentially in welding and/or robotics), and this funding would provide much needed resources to not only sustain our current programming but enhance and expand them as well as potentially adding more offerings. It also opens up the possibility of being able to bring students from other districts across the county to attend programming at MCS and to draw in families and students to our district.
He stated that a question he is often asked, is why doesn’t Washtenaw Community College (WCC) just do this programming and students attend WCC after high school graduation? His answer was that because by then it’s too late. He said that CTE in K–12 districts allows students to explore different career paths without spending a lot of money on the first two years of college. He also shared that businesses and industries are working side-by-side across the state with CTE programs to build the workforce, and business and industry is also supporting and backing the millage effort. He shared that a lot of kids find that CTE is a way to find success for students who want hands-on experience. He stated that 86% of CTE students in Washtenaw CTE programs go on to college in some form. He emphasized that our schools need to be able to help businesses and industry meet their talent needs. He said that by 2030 significant growth is expected in several specific fields, including healthcare and avionics.
Head said that Washtenaw CTE programming is at a tipping point. He shared that there is high student demand for CTE, and that over the last four years, interest in CTE has grown by more than 70%. But, sadly, hundreds of our kids remain on wait lists due to availability of programs and slots. He said that part of why WISD is falling behind is that other counties have much more programming available. He shared that the data shows that students of color, students considered at risk due to economic disadvantage, and students in rural smaller schools are more impacted due to the lack of availability. He said that WISD is effectively a CTE desert compared to most other counties statewide. He shared that 73% of counties in Michigan have a dedicated CTE millage currently.
So what does the CTE millage cost the average property/homeowner? According to WISD data, for most property tax payers, it will amount to approximately a $100-a-year increase in taxes for every $100,000 of taxable home value, which breaks down to just a quarter a day. He shared that he knows it’s difficult to pass another millage when Washtenaw has so many active millages already. But he emphasized again the potential positive impacts on MCS, our students, and our business and industry partners if the millage passes.
Another thing Head emphasized as a benefit of the CTE millage funding is that it could help reduce school staffing issues related to CTE. He said that we are currently lacking in our districts, college, and career readiness coaches in our high schools, specifically staff that is knowledgeable in CTE. This funding could help support training, hiring, and retaining college and career counselors in our districts as well as CTE instructors. He also said that dual enrollment in WCC and similar technical programs provides options for our students that can help alleviate certification and enrollment costs for students and families after leaving high school.
He shared that demand will continue to exceed and grow for CTE. He said that districts in WISD, without this millage, will not have needed funds for upgrades and new technologies to support the needs of our students. He also said that without dedicated funding, zip codes will continue to limit what access students in WISD have available to them.
Lastly, he shared that not securing this millage would be a missed opportunity for the schools in our county. He said that this funding would really help our kids and be a real benefit to MCS and WISD. And that “that’s what we’re here for, to give our kids as many opportunities as possible before they graduate.” Head plans another town hall event toward the end of October, after fall sports conclude and prior to election day. Time and date will be announced. He also said that absentee ballots have already been mailed out.
For additional information, readers can visit the WISD CTE website at: https://www.washtenawisd.org/career-technical-education/
In addition to writing for the Manchester Mirror, Colleen Schoenfeld serves as a Manchester Community Schools school board member.
Significant growth is expected in several specific fields in the next few years, including healthcare. Slide from WISD’s CTE millage slide show. Courtesy of MCS.
Manchester students receive CTE through SWWC, which, although it offers unique programs in Washtenaw, is still behind other districts in number, including Kalamazoo and Oakland Schools. Slide from WISD’s CTE millage slide show, courtesy of MCS.
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