More than two months after voters approved the 2011-12 budget and less than seven weeks before the start of school, Middleburgh school board members have to find a way to cut $144,000 in spending.
The district and teachers were unable to come to an agreement on a new and cheaper health insurance plan, said board President Kim Smith.
Board members will make the cuts at their next meeting on July 20.
Since board members cannot raise taxes on the already approved budget, layoffs are almost a certainty, Ms. Smith said.
In May, assuming there would be savings from moving the district offices into the schools, from staff retirements and from health insurance savings, board members added several items and positions back into the budget.
Ms. Smith said that people who thought they had jobs in September will not have jobs.
The board will have to consider rescinding those items added back into the budget and others, Ms. Smith said.
All options will be considered, she added.
“We’ll have to go through and make some cuts.”
Some employees have been told their jobs might be in jeopardy for the fall, Ms. Smith said.
What will be cut has not yet been discussed but Superintendent Michele Weaver is expected to give board members a list of possible cuts, she said.
Ms. Smith noted that the board had been discussing how to replace the dean of students, at a salary of about $50,000.
Members had been talking about hiring a director of curriculum and a part-time dean but that may no longer happen.
“We’re going to be looking at different things,” Ms. Smith said.
Among the items that were added back late in the budget season were: a guidance counselor, money for extra-curricular activities, funds for county counseling programs, money for the sports programs and musical instruments and more time for the physical therapist.
Both the district and the union tried very hard to come up with an agreement on a new health insurance program, Ms. Smith said.
Both sides met in executive session during a board meeting last month, she said, and talks continued but at a special on June 27, board members agreed that there would be no plan. The district will be staying with Empire and not going with Blue Shield of New York.
One of the issues raised by the teacher is that there is no official agreement signed between Bassett Health Care and Blue Shield, Ms. Smith said.
Both sides tried hard to come to an agreement, she added.
“Everybody did their part,” she said. “We made a valiant effort.”
In the end though, there was no agreement.
“They couldn’t live with our terms and we couldn’t live with theirs,” Ms. Smith said.
The union negotiating team was using the change as a bargaining chip “and we couldn’t come to an agreement we were comfortable with.”
Ms. Smith said that by the July 20 meeting, board members will have firmer numbers on savings from staff retirements.