Administrators cite value of program vs. amount of savings
The Bethlehem Central School District will be keeping its athletics budget flat in the coming year.
The school board at a Wednesday, March 16, budget workshop tentatively approved keeping athletics at about $507,000 in the 2011-12 budget, though some members said that could be revisited should the district fall short of closing a $4 million budget gap.
Another $120,000 would be scheduled for athletics transportation. Co-curricular activities (clubs, theater groups, etc.) would also not have their funding cut.
Cuts to these programs were controversial in last year’s budget process, when a proposal to cut the indoor track program and several clubs brought a steady stream of protestors to board meetings.
Administrators said the value of sports and clubs outweigh the costs associated with eliminating them, especially given that these programs as a whole constitute just under 1 percent of the total district budget.
Booster clubs and parents already take a great deal of the cost burden off of the district, said Superintendent Michael Tebbano at the budget meeting.
It became quite apparent to me there’s an awful lot of fundraising that goes on in all these groups, he said. `I would just as soon we look at other things.`
School board President James Dering said after cuts in previous years to coaching stipends, equipment funds and transportation budgets, the only thing left to do is to cut actual teams. For the money that’s saved, he said, it’s not a good tradeoff to the school experience.
`If you’re going to cut a team there’s really minimal costs…so with athletics it’s a question of whether you have a team or you don’t have a team,` he said.
The school board on Wednesday also reviewed the budget for special education, and tentatively approved $430,000 in budget reductions. (One position would be expanded at a cost of $40,000, effectively making the department’s cut $390,000).
The cuts are mainly in staffing. Three special education teaching positions, two speech therapist jobs, one social worker and a partial psychologist position would all see the ax.
The district’s Pupil Personnel Services Department Director, Rita Levay, said a great deal of the challenges facing the special education program involve 240 state mandates. She said she has little hope this burden will be reduced by a state mandate relief panel.
`Those are the things that cost us money,` she said. `Every one of those regulations cost us money.`
The school board also tentatively authorized upping the maximum school bus ride time from 45 to 60 minutes. District officials said the change would not affect most students and would save about $60,000 by allowing several bus routes to be consolidated.
Administrators said the average student ride time now is 34 minutes and for the vast majority of students it would not change. Only a handful would approach the hour limit, they said.
The next budget workshop will be held on Wednesday, March 30, in the Middle School auditorium, at 7 p.m. That evening will cover the K-12 instructional program, and a decision on the possible closure of an elementary school is also scheduled to be made.
Any budget decisions the school board’s made are tentative until the board adopts a budget, which is scheduled for April 6.“
