The Bethlehem Central athletics department is on the chopping block in the district’s latest round of reductions as the school faces a budget deficit and a cut in state aid.
During the Bethlehem Board of Education’s Wednesday, March 18, meeting, a unanimous decision was made to tentatively eliminate all night games and make other reductions totaling $35,380.
Emotions ran high during the three-hour meeting as parents and community members all spoke on behalf of keeping money in programs that they considered the most important.
Superintendent Michael Tebbano told the large crowd gathered at the meeting that he understands their concerns, and he and the board are doing their best to balance the school budget during a nationwide economic crisis.
Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been taking these budget sessions very seriously. We need to make education affordable to the community, he said. `I think we need to prepare for the worst-case scenario.`
Tebbano said reductions are being made across the board, and he asked residents to `look at the bigger picture` and not at any one particular program, department or interest.
`In the meantime,` he said, `we have to prepare for the worst.`
Eliminating night games would save the district $10,000 from the budget, and Tebbano said, `The lights would remain off for the rest of the year.`
District officials said they have no plans to close the budget gap with taxes alone, so the board has been reviewing three tiers of potential reductions during presentations on each department and budget area.
Thus far, the tentative budget reductions reached on March 4, 11 and 18, have reduced the initial $89.9 budget figure, which would be the budget carried over from last year without any changes or tax increases, down to nearly $88.6 million at this point.
Parents asked if they could help pay some costs of their children’s sports programs in order to minimize cuts, but Tebbano said after speaking with the district’s attorney that the state wouldn’t approve of any `pay to play` plans put forth by the school.
A big point of contention was a proposal to cut the schools’ modified sports program all together.
One parent and teacher, Mike Ferguson, said the importance of modified sports is even greater than the higher lever sports clubs because of the age bracket it affects.
`Obviously you have to plan for cuts,` he said of the proposed tier two reduction. `But, for me, that’s clearly a tier three cut.`
The proposed reductions are listed in three different tiers, with the third being the biggest reductions in expenditures. A full list of the proposed reductions can be found on the district’s Web site at, www.bcsd.k12.ny.us.
As the discussion went on, the board decided to table a possible modified cut, and said although it had hoped to vote on a preliminary budget by Wednesday, March 25, it appears unlikely at this time.
Board member Lisa Allendorf elicited a large round of applause when she stated, `I think I’d rather keep the modified than hire another mechanic.`
Board president James Lytle responded, `We don’t have booster clubs for our staff, obviously, and we don’t have booster clubs for our mechanics.`
The board was asked by a resident if there would there be fewer cuts in the budget if concessions had been made with the Bethlehem Central Teacher Association union before recent talks broke down about its current contract.
Lytle, who has publicly announced he will not seek re-election to the board and therefore will not be in talks during the BCTA contract negotiations next year, said renegotiating the union’s more than 5 percent raise would have freed up some funds in the budget.
`Had there been salary concessions, there would have been less hard decisions,` he said.
David Rounds, president of the BCTA, said neither the board nor the teachers are to blame for the current economic downturn.
`The issues facing the school district this year were not caused by decisions made by the board or actions taken by any of the three employee bargaining units,` he told The Spotlight. `The situation the district is facing is a direct result of a drop in state revenue caused mostly by a drop in the stock market.`
Rounds commended the board for `slowing the budget process down` to get a better idea of what state funding will be like.
`Although I appreciate the district effort to prepare for the worst-case scenario, it is likely the worst-case scenario will not happen,` Rounds said.
He also personally thanked Lytle for his service on the board.
`I commend the leadership of Mr. Lytle and the board of education for slowing down the process so that they can attempt to get a more precise idea of what state aid will actually look like,` he said.
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