Facing a deficit of nearly $2.6 million, Guilderland Central School District Superintendent Marie Wiles presented her draft budget for the 2012-2013 school year at a special Board of Education meeting held on March 1.
To close the gap, options suggested in the draft budget include switching the Farnsworth Middle School to an 8-hour day, reducing the number of class sections available to students in the high school and increasing the number of sections art and music teachers instruct per day. The budget would also have an impact on close to 30 full-time equivalent positions, with some teachers and staff having hours cut, rather than their positions completely eliminated.
“I think the board and the community were certainly not happy with the need to make reductions, but they were pleased with the amount of information we presented and for providing our reasons for putting those items in the budget or not,” said Wiles after the meeting.
The budget presented on March 1 was markedly different from the list of options presented in February. Wiles said the options previously described came from department heads, who she charged to reduce $750,000 at each level of education.
“We didn’t need all of those reductions,” she said. “We took the ones that restructured our leadership roles and because we took those, tried to stop arbitrary reductions.”
Options not included in the budget but previously discussed were increasing class sizes for elementary students, eliminating foreign language and computer classes at the high school level and reverting to half-day kindergarten. Also, no coaching, media, or custodial positions are eliminated in the draft budget.
“We want to preserve programming as best as we can and that means we need to be creative with how we employ people and maximize all the time available to us from our staff,” said Wiles.
The district’s mantra during this budget season has been to look at the changes as a restructuring of the education process to become better prepared for future budget cycles.
Many of the decisions were based on a decline in enrollment over the last decade and a loss of interest in some elective subjects among older students, according to Neil Sanders, the district’s assistant superintendent for business.
Wiles said there are still questions from parents about the impact of the schedule change at the high school and if it will have a negative effect on their child’s education.
“Questions will continue to be asked and we will address them,” said Wiles. “I think that these changes preserve other opportunities for students and the few items we had to cut I think proves that.”
No sports programs are affected in the draft budget and no art or music classes were eliminated, including the fourth grade band and orchestra programs.
“We looked at our structure to use staff more efficiently,” said Wiles. “I know it’s hard to let go of the way we have done things as part of our tutorial but by doing so we preserve more of other things. If we look at time and enrollments needs differently, we are not taking away other opportunities.”
The budget gap has narrowed since the community conversation held by the district in January. The previous gap estimate had been $3.3 million, but Wiles said contributions to the teacher’s retirement system were less then previously estimated.
However, the new state property tax cap will still hold Guilderland to increasing the tax levy by 2.5 percent without a supermajority of voters overriding the cap.
“We need to position ourselves for the long haul,” said Wiles. “I really think with these changes we will be in a better place years from now.”
There will then be several meetings to modify to proposal before the budget goes to the voters in May.
To see the full presentation for the meeting, visit the district’s website.
