The Bethlehem Central School District budgeted some time with the public to weigh in on its upcoming fiscal year by holding the first of four public forums on school spending.
About 75 residents filled the Bethlehem Middle School library on the evening of Monday, Jan. 12, to listen to district officials discuss the budget process and then ask questions and give feedback on the schools’ roughly $85 million budget.
District officials are calling this year the most difficult budget season in recent memory.
The next public meeting, which Superintendent Michael Tebbano described as a `roundtable format,` will take place at the middle school on Monday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m.
Tebbano said the community forums came about through an interest to build upon the work of the Citizens Budget Group during the last two years by opening up the budget process to a `broader community dialogue.` The district said it expects to use feedback from the meeting to help frame the board of education’s budget development work in February and March. Local residents will get their say on the district’s proposed budget when they vote on it, along with area library budgets, in May.
During discussions with Spotlight Newspapers, Tebbano said he plans to implement some of the ideas from the meetings.
`We have a crisis on our hands,` Tebbano said of the current economic climate. `We are going to be posting the budget online, and we are going to have our contracts online, too. We are really trying to be transparent, and we have talked to union leaders and they thought it was a good idea.`
Several attendees of the first budget meeting raised the topic of teacher’s salaries and contracts. It was a somewhat controversial topic that was hashed out last year when a member of Citizens Budget Group said members were not privy to the nearly 80 percent of the school budget that is consumed by employee salary and contracts.
Bethlehem faces a roughly $2.2 million cut in state aid under Gov. David Paterson’s proposed budget that is currently cutting $698 million in aid to schools statewide.
Tebbano said district officials came up with the community forum concept on their own, but he believes other school district are now holding similar forums in response to the `economic reality.`
`We thought about this at length. The reality is that we have to get ideas,` he said. `People on the front line are constantly e-mailing me ideas on what kind of things can we do to save money.`
In his welcoming remarks of the community forum, Board President James Lytle noted that community participation is essential to the way the district functions.
`We are now facing probably the most challenging budget process that this district has encountered in a long time,` he said. `What we learned from our experiences last year though was to engage the community at the earliest possible time and engage them as directly and as transparently as we can through the process.`
While the district first announced the forums in late summer, the backdrop is now the continued economic turmoil and New York’s fiscal woes, which has districts across the state bracing for a potential cut in state aid.
Prior to the community’s turn to ask questions and give input, Tebbano explained how the possibility of substantial state aid cuts could lead to tough choices as the district and community shape the 2009-10 budget.
State aid is one of the district’s three main revenue sources, along with property taxes and federal funding.
`When state aid goes down dramatically, `we lose ground but the cost of running a school district continues to escalate,` he said. `In order to control costs, we have to figure out how to make up the ground we’re losing. Do we cut programs? Do we cut faculty? Do we raise taxes?`
The bulk of this first budget forum was devoted to an opportunity for community members to ask questions and provide suggestions. The school’s new financial officer, Judi Kehoe, gave a brief 10-minute presentation explaining some of the technicalities involved with the district’s budget.
Michael Cooper, a Delmar resident who is active with the school’s booster clubs, told officials not to count out the academic benefits of the athletic programs if cuts are necessary.
`The benefits to our kids from athletics are immeasurable, many kids who may fall by the wayside continue academically because of their love of sports,` he said. `I would like to ask that the district take that into consideration for many kids this is their lifeblood.`
Peter Shawn, a Bethlehem resident who described himself as having two children `go through the system` grades kindergarten through 12, said there needs to be a balance of all programs during the budget, but that academics should be the `highest priority.`
`I think it’s important to approach this in a balanced way, but having said that, I would recommend that the highest priority be placed on preserving the academic quality and the strength of the academic programs, that’s the core of what school district does,` said Shawn.
He added that school should continue its programs for `highly enabled` students by providing advanced courses and an array of AP classes.
John Giordano, a member of the Citizens Budget Group who spoke out about making teacher salaries and contracts more readily available last year, commented that he hopes a more open dialogue on the `real cost` associated with teachers’ salaries will be achieved this year.
Philip Carter, a local business man who was also vocal about last year’s school budget and attended the meeting, wrote an e-mail to Spotlight Newspapers saying more residents need to be involved in the process.
`It is important that as many people as we can get attend or parents will find that programs that affect their children have been abolished or taxes have been raised,` Carter wrote. `Last year only 20 percent of the registered voters took part in the school budget election, which means that the budget was passed by 11 percent of the voters.`
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Lytle joked at the meeting that `if you know of any new ideas` about getting more people to vote, to let the school district know.
District officials have stressed that all community members are encouraged to come to the Monday, Jan. 26, forum to participate in roundtable conversations about budget issues and community priorities. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the Bethlehem Central Middle School Library. For residents who cannot make the community budget forums, they will be televised on channel 18, Bethlehem. They will air on Saturdays at 5 p.m., Sundays at 4 p.m. and Tuesdays at 2 p.m.
For an executive summary of the community feedback and questions discussed at the first public meeting visit www.spotlightnews.com.
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