BAINBRIDGE – Bainbridge-Guilford taxpayers will face an estimated 1.8 percent tax levy increase based on the tentative 2011-12 budget adopted by the school district’s board of education on April 7. The proposed spending plan, which voters will be asked to approve on May 17, totals $16,756,946.
“This is a budget increase of 2.2 percent over the current year,” reported B-G Superintendent Karl Brown.
Brown attributed the increase to a new debt service line related to the district’s recent capital project.
“The amount for this debt service for construction will be completely offset by state building aid and local reserves designated for this purpose,” he explained. “Without this additional budget cost, the total budget appropriations would have represented a decrease from 2010-11.”
B-G was hit hard by Albany’s education cuts, which cost the district $1.65 million in state aid. For a second year in a row, they were forced to make cuts to balance the budget. Last year, those cuts involved both staff and program reductions.
“Many of our reductions were done last year through retirements in positions that were not rehired and elementary positions that were reduced due to enrollment,” Brown said.
Six additional positions will be eliminated this year. They are that of an elementary teacher (reduced due to enrollment), a bus driver (due to consolidating bus runs), 2 support staff (attrition) and 2 coaches.
“One coaching position was eliminated because the MAC League dropped the JV level in Soccer,” Brown explained. The other is an assistant wrestling coach.
“All other programs were maintained and a limited late bus run between Bainbridge and Guilford was restored,” he said.
To help mitigate further cuts, the district’s administration volunteered to forgo raises next year. Brown, who will retire at the end of this academic year, declined his salary increase for 2010-11.
The board has not made a “formal request” for the teacher and support staff unions to do the same, however. According to the superintendent, this is because B-G is currently in contract negotiations with both groups at this time.
To further preserve programs, Brown explained, the district will apply $900,000 from fund balance and use $365,000 in Federal Jobs Program funds. The superintendent warned, however, that these are only short-term solutions to long-term budget problems.
“The Fed Jobs money that is being used will end after 2011-12 and the use of fund balance cannot be sustainable over long periods of time if revenue cuts continue and get worse as they did this year,” he explained.
In terms of a long-term solution, Brown says that will take reform in Albany.
“New York State has to address the inequities of aid support to schools,” he explained. According to the superintendent, rural Upstate schools like B-G are highly dependent on state aid, which can account for as much as 60 percent of their total revenue. When aid is cut, they feel it more than wealthier suburban districts, such as those in Westchester County or on Long Island. Those districts are not only less dependent on aid, but also have a larger tax base which is better able to absorb cuts in state funding.
In the meantime, however, Brown said he and the other district leaders will focus on the things they can control.
“[W]e will continue to operate as efficiently as possible to offset the increasing costs of health insurance coverage, heating oil, and fuel over which we have limited control,” he said, adding that the district is awaiting results of a facilities study which will “help to guide future considerations toward cost cutting.”
Residents will have an opportunity to learn more about the budget proposal at a Public Budget Hearing at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10 in the MS/HS Auditorium.