SCS looking at cuts to offset $ gap

3/1/2016

By David Avitabile

Schoharie school officials will look at budget cuts, possible state aid increases, and using their savings to offset a budget revenue gap of $536,081.
School board members were presented with the first draft of a possible 2016-17 budget earlier this month. A budget forum was held Thursday evening and attracted about 30 residents. Board members will then review the spending plan at their March 17 meeting, where updates are expected. The budget will be approved by the board in April and then go to the voters in May.
Superintendent David Blanchard and Bob Bonaker, the assistant superintendent for business, presented the proposed budget to board members earlier this month.
Spending in the preliminary budget is up by $726,415 or 3.25 percent, Mr. Bonaker told board members. The increase in spending leaves the proposed budget at $23.11 million. The current budget is $22.38 million.
Increases in employee salaries and benefits make up the vast majority, 93 percent, of the budget increase.
For salaries, additional appropriations are adding a first grade teacher, due to projected enrollment increase and class size limits; increase a high school home and careers position from .6 to 1.0 full-time, and increase a speech therapist position from 0.8 to full-time, according to Mr. Bonaker.
There are additional appropriations for learning materials for both school buildings in the curriculum areas of reading, English, and math, Mr. Bonaker added.
The increase in spending is slightly offset by additional state aid of $156,051. Basic state aid is up by about $11,000. In addition, SCS will be losing about $145,000 in the gap elimination adjustment that was instituted several years ago to help the state fill its own budget gap. Schoharie lost $360,848 to the GEA this year and is estimated to lose $215,965 next year. That is a far cry from the $1.9 million lost to the GEA in the 2011-12 school year.
Preliminary figures show the district using $1.442 million in fund balance (savings) to offset the tax levy increase.
Under the state imposed tax levy limitation, the district can only increase the levy by $18,013 or .19 percent for 2016-17. If the district increases the levy by more than that percentage, voters would have to approve the spending plan by at least 60 percent in May instead of a simple majority.
For the current school year, spending was increased by 3.25 percent (the same percentage that is in the proposed budget), the levy was up by 1.31 percent and the tax rate increased by .69 percent on average.
The preliminary budget could be considered a "worst-case" scenario, officials noted.
The preliminary budget, noted Mr. Bonaker and Mr. Blanchard, is based upon the state aid projected by the Governor.
"We can only hope that additional state aid is forthcoming as the legislature and the Governor engage in their budget deliberations. We are seeking an end to the Gap Elimination Adjustment as well as additional aid under the various formulas that the state uses.
"We also hope that there is an 'on-time' budget in place by April 1, as they have done in the past few years," they stated.
Expenditures are not likely to change much, they added.
The appropriations for health insurance and the retirement systems have been properly calculated and are pretty much set, they said.
"This budget is fairly lean and there really is not any place for there to be impactful reductions, so we are banking on the state coming through with the appropriate amount of aid to which Schoharie Central School District is entitled per the formulas and the calculations that are prescribed by law," they stated.