The Bethlehem Board of Education has voted to keep modified and freshmen level sports in the district in its final reduction session, but eliminated paying for the ice, greens and lane fees for its hockey, golfing and bowling teams.
During its Wednesday, March 25, meeting residents listened to the board make its finalized tentative budget reductions, although the board did not formally adopt a 2009-2010 school budget.
The district had reservations about a tier two proposal in its three-tiered plan to eliminate modified and freshmen level sports after receiving substantial criticism from the community. The board moved the reductions to the tier three level, thereby keeping the programs intact.
No tier three cuts, which included many staff and faculty cuts, were adopted by the board as a part of these weekly reduction sessions.
Resident Joan Smith said the board did the right thing by keeping modified and freshmen sports.
We’d like to thank the board for moving the modified cut to tier three, said Smith, after two middle school students handed in a petition with 500 signatures to keep modified.
Bethlehem is facing a $2.2 million cut in state aid and had to try to close the budget gap on an almost $90 million budget by reducing expenditures and increasing revenues.
Superintendent Michael Tebbano said many decisions facing the school are riding on the passage of a state budget that would restore some school funding.
`It all matters if the legislature can pass the budget They’re doing their thing, and we just have to be patient,` he said of the state budget passing by Wednesday, April 1.
Tebbano said he received a letter from the governor’s office stating that once the budget passes, money will be flowing to area school districts.
To make the budget’s passage even more pressing, Tebbano said, the promised federal stimulus money can not come to Bethlehem until New York has passed its own budget.
Tebbano, who requested the board not increase his salary for the next two years, said the restoration of state aid through state budget restoration and federal stimulus money was `probable.`
Many of the suburban council schools, including Bethlehem and Guilderland, are not privy to `title one` funding from the government, because Tebbano said, they considered `affluent districts.`
Before the meeting began, the board had cut $1.4 million from its budget, which had increased nearly $5 million over last year’s through contractual raises, cost-of-living increases, supply increases and other annual expenditure hikes. District officials have described the budget as a `rollover budget` from last year’s.
By the meeting’s end, the board’s tentative budget reductions did not total more than $1.8 million.
In a rare 5-to-2 split vote, the board voted to eliminate paying the fee associated with hockey, golf and bowling. Board members Diane Glacone Stever and Matt Downey voted against the cuts. District spokesman Matt Leon said the district would still supply everything else, such as uniforms, coaches and referees.
However, those clubs will be responsible for raising the money for their respective fees to play.
The district pays $21,000 to rent the ice rink from the Capital District YMCA, which the board said is `the biggest check we write` for any single sports expenditure.
Tebbano said the board would be drafting a `district fundraiser policy` to be presented at the next board of education meeting on April 22, which is when the board is expected to officially adopt its 2009-2010 budget proposal for voters to weigh in on in May.
He also said he would be willing to sit in on talks with the YMCA to see if some fundraising changes could be made because they do not allow 50/50 raffles and other types of common fundraising at the facility on Delaware Avenue.
President of the Hockey Boosters, Mike Cooper, said hockey players and their families understood the cuts and that fundraising would continue the program in Bethlehem.
`It’s absolutely viable,` he said. `We’re very committed to this program and would like to see it continue, and we’re going to do whatever we can to see that it does.`
Cooper said that when the school budget was voted down a couple of years ago, hockey was completely cut from the school, but the boosters club raised $35,000 in about six months to save the program.
In another rare split vote, the board voted 4-to-3 against sending a third student to Tech Valley High School. Board President James Lytle, the longest-serving board member, Lynne Lenhardt and Downey were outvoted.
Bethlehem’s two current Tech Valley students will remain in the program.
Lytle and Lenhardt’s terms expired this school year. Lytle has announced he will not seek re-election in May, while Lenhardt said she would seek another three-year term.
The public will vote on the board seats during the Tuesday, May 19, budget vote at the Bethlehem High School. The two highest vote getters will win the seats. Interested residents can pick up a petition at the school district office, 90 Adams Place, Delmar.
To appear on the ballot, 78 signatures are needed.
Transportation Department Director Al Karam withdrew a request for a full-time mechanic at the cost of $58,400 and an emergency power generator at the cost of $20,000.
Board member Lisa Allendorf personally thanked Karam after commenting the week before to a large applause that she would rather keep modified sports than hire a new mechanic.
In addition to the proposed Bethlehem Central Budget and two board member seats in May, voters will also have the opportunity to vote on a $1.2 million bus proposition to replace 18 buses.
Officials said they wanted to emphasize to the community that the bus replacement was not an `addition` to the budget, but that it is already factored in and needs to be approved by voters separately in order to allow the district to borrow the funding for the buses.
The Bethlehem Central Teachers Association contract was once again raised when Tebbano announced that teacher sabbaticals would have to be re-entered into the budget because of contractual obligations with the district.
One resident stated to the board, `And the union skates away free with their sabbaticals and pay raises.`
Tebbano said there was nothing the district could do.
`The fact is the BCTA rejected our proposal,` he responded.“