After hearing comments from parents and residents late into the night, the Bethlehem Central school board voted to adopt a spending plan for the 2012-13 school year that challenges the state tax cap.
The adopted plan calls for $88,203,000 in spending for the coming school year and a tax levy increase of 3.99 percent. The new tax levy would reduce the budget gap to $3.8 million.
BC Superintendent Tom Douglas said the Board opted to adopt the budget during the meeting on Tuesday, April 3, instead of the intended date of Monday, April 23, after members decided they would challenge the levy limit to minimize to number of cuts in next year’s budget. To pass the budget in May, at least 60 percent of those voting will need to be in favor of the plan, instead of a simple majority. If the spending plan is voted down, the district would have the option of revising it and putting it to a second vote.
“We’ve had community forums and budget workshops; we’ve listened to the feedback of the people who have been involved,” said Douglas. “One thing we heard consistently is that a Bethlehem education is an excellent one the community would like to maintain.”
The district will use $1.7 million in reserve funds to balance the budget. In addition, more than 56 full-time-equivalent positions would be eliminated, 22 of them teaching positions.
According to Chief Business and Financial Officer Judith Kehoe, if the new tax increase is approved by the public, reductions will fall midway into the tier two priority cuts established by the district. The previous plan would call for reductions through three of the four tiers.
The budget process largely consisted of the board holding discussions to prioritize spending cuts. At times, parents were vocal over saving athletics programs, special education assistance and “specials” in the elementary schools like art and music. Some parents were also upset over the possibility their children may have to walk longer distances to get to school.
The adopted spending plan calls for cuts to electives resulting in larger class sizes, phasing out the Chinese language program, reducing 20 percent of all clubs at the middle and high school levels and eliminating the gymnastics program. The district is also working on a plan to implement centralized bus stop locations, meaning some students in higher grade levels would need to walk farther to reach a bus stop.
The new plan would save most special education programs and positions, as well as nearly all athletic programs. Douglas said parents should remember the board passes a spending plan, not a line-by-line budget, and changes could happen occur up to and into the 2012-13 school year.
The proposed tax levy would mean a home assessed at $100,000 would pay an additional $81 per year. The district is recommending that residents use the new tax calculator on the district’s website to determine how much they would pay based on the new tax levy increase.
Douglas commended the community and the Board of Education for `hard work throughout this difficult process.` He said he’s unsure of where the board would set the levy increase if the budget should fail the first time.
“Those are still discussions that need to be had,” Douglas said.
Over the last two years, more than 60 full-time positions have been reduced throughout the district. In addition, the Clarksville Elementary School was closed this school year, saving the district about $840,670.
“We’ve used our reserves and we’ve tightened our belts,” said Board President Diane Giacone Stever in a statement. “And at the end of the day we as a board feel it’s our responsibility to our students, parents and community to put forward to the public a budget that preserves the excellent educational experience Bethlehem Central schools are known for.”
Based on the past three years, the district estimated it would receive just $380,000 of the $798,000 the state has said would be given in aid for the 2012-13 school year.
Douglas said part of the reason the district is facing such a large gap in the coming year is that for the past three years Bethlehem Central schools paid back nearly $12 million in state aid through the Gap Elimination Adjustment that he believes the district should have received.
“The aid we should have received would have staved off those 120 cuts, 60 from the last three years,” said Douglas. “Now we’re forced to cut about the same amount of positions in one year. If the state managed its budget and did not pass its gap elimination on to the school districts … I would have about $3.9 million and I wouldn’t have had to cut anything.”
This year’s vote will take place on May 15.
