Cobleskill-Richmondville is looking for the public to help with its 2010-11 school budget.
The school board last week issued a call for volunteers, hoping to attract about 30 for the Citizens’ Budget Committee.
Thirty is about twice as many as manned the committee in past years. Board member Rose Surman said the increase was to draw a broader cross-section of the community.
“We always had a stable membership, and now we want to hear some new voices,” added Superintendent Lynn Macan.
“We appreciated all the committee did in the past.
The goal is to get a better idea of what parents and voters want in the budget during tightening economic times, Ms. Macan said.
“We’ll talk about what you value most, what the school district could do without, things like that,” she said.
The committee will meet four times––January 20, February 9, March 3 and March 31––before the school board adopts a tentative budget on April 12.
Besides being larger, the committee will hear different presentations than in past years, Ms. Macan said.
Before, committee members heard longer budget explanations “that didn’t leave much time for conversation,” she said.
The committee this year will hear shorter presentations from administrators responsible for putting together sections of the budget.
Because of financial constraints, a typical topic might be class size versus breadth of program, Ms. Macan said.
“The intent is to learn how the budget works in schools and what our fiscal forecast looks like,” she said.
“It’s a good opportunity to learn about the school district in a compacted way.”
Anyone interested should call the school district office at 234-4032.