CHENANGO COUNTY – Local schools will face tough decisions in the coming year if Governor Paterson’s proposed cuts to state aid make it through to the final state budget, according to local superintendents.
“We’re an organization built upon personnel and student programming. We are heavily dependent upon state aid to run our programs,” said Gerard O’Sullivan, superintendent of the Norwich City School District.
The Executive Budget Proposal, unveiled by Governor David Paterson Tuesday, calls for $1.1 billion in cuts to schools across New York State as one of the measures necessary to eliminate the state’s $7.4 billion budget deficit. According to preliminary figures, the governor’s plan would mean a loss of more than $4.1 million in total state aid to Chenango’s nine school districts.
For Norwich, that could mean as much of a $825,225 reduction in aid for 2010-2011, a 3.88 percent decrease from what they are slated to receive in the current academic year.
“The Norwich CSD has traditionally run a very conservative and very tight budget, and cuts in state aid of this size are devastating,” O’Sullivan said. “We have made so much progress in academics and programming, I can’t imagine what it would be like to go backwards.”
At Unadilla Valley, Superintendent Bob Mackey said he is still trying to “fully digest” the governor’s proposal.
“He has a lot of mandate relief proposed and I need to determine its impact on us,” said Mackey, explaining that he sees this and the fact that many of the existing aid formulas stayed the same as victories on the “advocacy front.”
Those victories, however, are unlikely to offset the full $546,052 cut in aid UV would be faced with if Paterson’s proposal becomes a reality.
“There will be an impact, but where and just how deep I can’t say at this time,” the superintendent reported. “We will do everything we can to make sure the impact of these cuts has limited impact on our students.”
At Bainbridge-Guilford, Superintendent Karl Brown still has questions about how the governor’s proposed reduction of $555,309 will change between now and when the state budget is finalized. The current amount being discussed represents a 5.64 percent decrease in total aid for the rural district.
His philosophy on the matter is, “plan for the worst, expect better.”
“We would have to consider many areas of the budget, but it is hard to make up that amount without considering payroll and positions,” Brown said.
It’s too soon to talk about tax levy increases, he reported, but “as a rule of thumb,” a one percent increase is the equivalent of approximately $50,000 in taxpayer dollars.
For Greene, the governor’s proposal would mean a $233,511 reduction.
“This cut in aid together with contractual increases and other fixed cost increases present us with a formidable challenge,” reported the district’s superintendent, Jonathan Retz. “We have begun discussions on how we will address it, but are in the early stages of this process.”
If the total amount of the state’s aid cuts were passed on to Greene taxpayers, it would mean a “double digit” increase in the local tax levy.
“Obviously this is totally unacceptable and we have a lot of work to do,” said Retz.
Afton Superintendent Betty Briggs echoed her Greene colleagues’ sentiments.
“As far as Afton goes, trying to make up a $480,000 cut in aid is difficult. We will be looking at making cuts,” she said. “We hope to be able to maintain programs, but time will tell.”
Briggs said the district will also need to evaluate the long term impact of using the district’s reserves to cover the shortfall to see if that is an option. One way or another, however, the full burden of the cuts cannot be passed onto taxpayers. She estimated it would take a 12.5 percent increase in the tax levy to cover the aid cuts something, like Retz, she calls unacceptable.
Under the governor’s proposal, Oxford would see a $565,868 cut thanks to GEA. Balanced with aid increases in other areas, this would mean a $331,933 reduction in the total amount of state aid received by the district.
Oxford Superintendent Randy Squier said that, even though school leaders anticipated cuts and had already begun planning for that eventuality, it will still mean taking “an honest look” at the district’s needs and an evaluation of what is working and what isn’t.
The challenge will be compounded, he explained, as the state education department will be “raising the bar” in terms of academic standards at the same time.
“We will need to be creative and flexible in order to expand our individual and collective capacity to support all our students as we face more rigorous state standards,” Squier said.
As challenging as developing the 2010-2011 budget will be for local districts, the administrator expects the situation to get worse, not better, in planning for 2011-2012.
“I am actually more concerned with the following year’s state budget,” Squier said, explaining districts will have to face the fact that federal stimulus money is no longer on the table and many will have already depleted their fund balances to avoid a steep a hike in the tax levy.
He and many of his colleagues will join school board members in sharing their concerns directly with elected officials this Saturday, at the Legislative Breakfast hosted annually by DCMO BOCES and the Chenango County School Board Association.
Senator James Seward, Assemblyman Cliff Crouch and a representative from Senator Tom Libous’ office will be among the attendees at the event, which will be held at the Silo Restaurant in Coventry.
It is a safe bet that the governor’s budget proposal, as well as un-funded state mandates, will top the list of items for discussion.