The Cobleskill-Richmondville school board ended weeks of financial wrangling and public outcry Monday night by adopting a budget that restores a half-dozen teaching positions and slightly raises the tax levy.
But adopting the 2011-12 $34.1 million budget didn’t come without calls for putting up separate propositions for sports, which the board didn’t do.
If approved by voters May 17, the budget would cut spending by $1.9 million but still raise the tax levy by $404,000, or 2.95 percent.
And the budget still cuts––or leaves vacant by unfilled retirements––more than 20 teaching and support staff jobs.
The board had cut more positions earlier in budget work to try to cope with a steep cut in state aid.
Over the past six weeks, public speakers asked C-R to restore some of those positions, and the board did so in the proposed budget:
A full-time elementary math teacher, a full-time library media specialist, and half-time positions of a high school reading teacher, secondary technology teacher, student support specialist and a music teacher.
Bringing back the music teacher allows C-R to continue its strings program, a strong demand from the public.
Money for the restored positions comes from undesignated fund balance, other reserves and debt restructuring, Superintendent Lynn Macan said.
Input on restoring the positions came from administrators, “dialog about the budget” and the public, she added.
“We heard similar themes on some of these items,” Ms. Macan said.
She thanked the public, board, staff and students for working on the budget and “balancing the needs of students with the needs of the community.”
Touching on the long budget process and continued hard financial times, board President Bruce Tryon agreed with Ms. Macan.
“The budget process at C-RCS will no longer be a November-to-May process,” he said. “Rather, we need to prepare ourselves for the 2012-13 budget soon after the 2011-12 budget is passed.”
Cuts in spending are generally across the board, according to Business Administrator Johnnie Nemec, including salaries, BOCES services, utilities, transportation and more.
Benefits, however, are rising $852,000, “even though we have fewer employees,” Mr. Nemec said.
Not restored were several varsity sports and all modified sports, and retired teachers and coaches Russ Smith and Tim Snyder asked whether those sports could be presented to voters as propositions separate from the budget.
“It’s hard to support a budget that raises my taxes and cuts programs for kids,” Mr. Snyder said.
“If you think athletics are valuable, why take them away from kids?”
Later, Ms. Macan said if voters approved the propositions and defeated the budget, taxpayers would be paying for a full sports program but academics might be cut in the main budget.
Such a scenario would give the impression that sports are more important than academics, she said.
Several speakers at Monday’s meeting raised other issues about the budget.