Additional state aid used to restore teachers, avoid multi-grade classes
The Niskayuna Board of Education settled on a 3.95 percent tax levy increase after approving the $77.19 million 2011-12 budget.
Niskayuna’s proposed budget includes a spending increase of 0.97 percent, or $740,359, which school officials said was the lowest spending increase in at least 25 years. District officials said the average assessed house in the town at $250,000 would see an increase in taxes around $165 next year. The combined costs for salary, benefits and pension expenses increased by $2.75 million. Out of the 29.5 full-time equivalent positions cut in the budget, teacher cuts were only 2.9 FTE.
It was a very difficult budget period we went through but I think that we have created a budget that represents our determination to maintain programs in Niskayuna, said Jeanne Sosnow, president of the Board of Education. `We are certainly hoping that the community would support it.`
Four elementary teaching positions were also restored before the board approved the budget, so the proposal to combine classes for fourth- and fifth-graders was avoided. Projected additional state aid was used to restore the positions. Reading teachers and most of the cuts to music and art programming were also restored before approval.
`The areas that the parents and students spoke to had to do with the creating of a [fourth and fifth grade] combination classes after restoration of some state aid, we maintained the single-level classrooms,` said Sosnow.
Many districts have grappled with continuing to provide summer school, which is not mandated, and the Niskayuna BOE decided to eliminate summer school for grades kindergarten to eighth. Programs for gifted students were also fully maintained, said Sosnow. Late buses, another issue other districts have grappled with, would be reduced with a funding reduction of $18,000 to bring the total expense to $48,000. The number of days and the number of buses would both be reduced.
`We went through each of these line items and discussed them and talked about how they would affect the students,` said Sosnow. `We maintained class sizes on several instances where eliminating a section would have pushed the class size higher.`
If district taxpayers do vote down the budget, the BOE is going to continue digging deeper, which would involve additional cuts likely to directly effect students.
`By adopting this budget, the Board of Education fully intends to maintain a spending level no higher than what has been proposed, regardless of the outcome of the vote,` said Superintendent Kevin Baughman in a statement.
Looking ahead, the district is also planning on what future budgets could entail based on projected expenses and reduced state and federal aid. The district saw a reduction in state aid totaling $1.2 million and federal stimulus aid dropping approximately $1.5 million. If the district carried forward a budget with no reductions from the current year, the tax increase would be over 11 percent.
`We do have a budget forecast for four years, so we are creating scenarios based on our best assumptions on what is coming. Part of that planning helps us to determine how much reserves funds to use,` said Sosnow. `Now we are getting down to where our only options will be to cut into programs.`
To help ease the burden on expenses, a wage freeze was agreed on by building principals, K-12 directors, district office clerical staff, district supervisors, assistant superintendent and administrator for human resources. The cost savings of the freeze is around $87,000.
District taxpayers will vote on the budget on May 17 at the high school from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Also to be decided are two Board of Education seats for three-year terms and a school bus proposition to purchase four 66-passenger buses, one 35-passenger bus and two 24-passenger buses with wheelchair access. The eight current buses would be retired and phased out due to high mileage and expensive maintenance costs, according to district officials.“