Declining enrollment could lead to closing schools
School officials are listening to community members as they develop a plan for the future of the school, while keeping costs under control.
Residents of Schalmont Central School District were provided with a formal presentation on the efficiency study completed in September by Advisory Solutions, a consultant group created by the New York State School Boards Association, which looks at options for the district spanning five years. The first two roundtable discussions were held on Wednesday, Oct. 13, and Thursday, Oct. 14. Before each discussion there was an hour-long presentation given to explain the study.
There are six scenarios (A to `F`) in the study, which range from continuing what the district is currently doing to closing schools and combining attendance zones. Each option has the advantages and challenges associated with them listed in the report. There is also another scenario provided to allow the community and school officials to come up with there own scenario.
`What happens next door or what happens around the state is not relevant to us right now,` said Schalmont Superintendent Valerie Kelsey during the Oct. 14 presentation. `What is relevant to us right now is the children of Schalmont and how we as the parents, the guardians and the citizens, how we want to deal with this crisis. How are we are going to make choices that provide for all children how are we going to find equity to educate all of them in a way that we can all come together with consensus and support.`
Kelsey said the district would be faced with a $1.7 million increase in the upcoming budget if they decided to keep the current programs. Kelsey said in the district, 28 percent comes from state and federal and 71 percent is paid by taxpayers, with only 1 percent coming out of the district’s fund balance.
There were five sources of data used to evaluate the district, said Paul Seversky, of Advisory Solutions, who conducted the study. The sources include live births in the district, new households with children moving into the district, new population of child-bearing with plans for a family moving into the district, enrollment of students from non-public schools or home school settings, school programs changes in assistance to students for academic success.
`What you are looking at, you arte crafting the future fort your kids and that takes a lot of involvement from everybody,` said Seversky. `The study does not recommend anything, as a guest outsider that is not my role.`
Enrollment number for kindergarten to twelfth-grade for the 2009 to 2010 school year was 1,996 students, which has been steadily declining from the 2004 to 2005 enrollment total of 2,162 students.
Schenectady County live births remained fairly steady since 2002 to 2008, but within the district’s enrollment area the numbers have been generally declining.
Housing developments also aren’t projected to boost enrollment numbers.
`At this time there is nothing solid to project any new enrollment cause of housing,` said Seversky. `There is a set or even a close to some semblance of phase of some of these units.`
Enrollment projections were also provided by Seversky, which stated kindergarten to fifth grade will decrease by 70 to 110 pupils in the next five years, the sixth to eighth grade decreasing by 20 pupils in the next eight years, and ninth to twelfth grade decreasing by 90 to 110 pupils in the next ten years.
With the projected bleak outlook, the district needs to decide how to run the district.
In last years school budget, said Kelsey, the school implemented cost saving measures cutting $1.2 million from the districts budget. Kelsey said The cuts included the DARE program, the Gifted and Talented program, combining to small classes at Mariaville, reducing the district’s instructional material by 30 percent, cutting the summer enrichment programs and cutting nearly 12 full-time employees.
`The challenge, and it has been the challenge for the last two or three years, how do we meet the needs of the students of Schalmont at a cost the taxpayers can afford to support?` said Kelsey. `We need to consider our declining enrollment, the current economic situation in our country, economic development in our region and of course our overall school budget.`
State aid totals around $11 million, said Kelsey, but when the recession hit two years ago the state cut $1.6 million from Schalmont’s state aid, although, the district was `bailed out` by the federal government from stimulus funding. As state aid stayed flat for last year’s budget, but state aid wasn’t $1.6 million anymore; the federal funding only totaled $627,000.
The state also did receive $700 million from the federal program Race to the Top, which will be used over the next four years. Schalmont will receive a total $26,094 out of the total amount awarded to the state.
For the upcoming budget the federal stimulus money is gone, but a bill passed by the federal government to support education jobs will only have $250,000 for Schalmont to use over the next two years.
Schalmont is planned two hold three more roundtable discussions with the first two on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m. happening at the high school cafeteria; the final discussion will be held at the middle school cafeteria on Monday, Dec. 13, at 6 p.m. To view a copy of the efficiency study visit the district’s
website
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