After several meetings targeted at closing a $4.4 million budget gap, the Niskayuna Board of Education has approved a budget within the tax cap despite some calls to exceed the limit. The Board of Education on Tuesday, April 17, adopted the 2012-13 budget in a 5-2 vote. The budget calls for a tax levy increase of 3.29 percent and decreases year-to-year spending by more than $1.85 million, or 2.4 percent. The average home in Niskayuna assessed at $250,000 would see a $144 tax increase. Eighty full-time equivalent staff positions are slated for elimination. “We started out with a pretty dramatic list of reductions and we have made some pretty significant changes to those reductions as it has become clear where our populations were at the elementary schools, the middle schools and the high school,” Superintendent Susan Salvaggio said. The board previously looked at Level 1A reductions, which were needed to reach the tax levy limit, and it decided to restore freshman sports and one high school guidance position. Reductions to make up for those changes included a $60,000 reduction in utility expenses and only partial implementation of the district’s technology upgrade plan to save $50,000. Salvaggio said district officials reevaluated utility expenses and felt comfortable with the reduction. She said the cost of natural gas is projected to continue to decrease, but there is also reduced energy usage through geo-thermal energy initiatives at the district. Also, the district is looking at entering into a partnership with Monolith Solar Associates, LLC, to install solar panels for little to no cost. She said the solar panels would result in a $30,000 to $50,000 savings by September. Other Level 1A reductions include one mechanic ($75,000), one speech instructor through retirement ($66,000), textbooks ($45,000), fringe benefits ($41,000) and other reductions that bring the total to $500,000. Board members Debra Gordon and Barbara Mauro voted against the budget and said they’d prefer to exceed the state mandated tax levy threshold of 3.29 percent to offer district voters a chance to support a fuller program. “I said last year that this was awful; I never dreamt that this would be worse but it was,” Gordon said. “There hasn’t been a week that has gone by, a night that has gone by, where I haven’t thought about this budget.” Gordon said she is looking at the budget as “more than a financial position” and is considering the school services and effect on the community. She said residents have been active in discussions and it was only fitting to then allow them the opportunity to exceed the tax levy limit. If the district had put a budget exceeding the tax cap to voters it would need to pass by at least 60 percent, instead of by a simple majority. Mauro said once state aid came in lower than the projected amount, increasing the budget gap by about $300,000, she started to “seriously consider” letting the public decide whether or not to exceed the cap. “People do have varied opinions about this, but everybody I have talked to knows it is an impact,” Mauro said. “The decision I think we have is just how far to go. … At what point do we give voters an opportunity to weigh in?” Fellow board member David Hudson said the state mandated tax cap has changed how the district develops the budget. “For several months our efforts have been focused on the tax levy threshold of 3.29 percent, a number we certainly would not have suggested in any other year,” Hudson said. He also said traditionally if the community voted down the budget, it was because it was too much of an increase, but now he isn’t sure if the vote represents a feeling the budget is too high or too low. “The only thing you know for sure is that it wasn’t just right,” he said.
Several board members who voted “yes” said the adopted budget doesn’t diminish programming and having to craft a contingency budget would be too great of a burden. Board President Jeanne Sosnow said it is important to remain under the tax cap due to the tough times taxpayers are going through. “It represents changes in the ways we do things, but I don’t think that is harming instruction children are getting,” Sosnow said. “It maintains a lot of our programs. It may look a little different.” She added if the board thought it needed to go over the tax levy limit in following years the community might be more supportive if the board remains under the tax cap limit this year. The district can present another budget proposal to voters if it fails the May vote, but if it fails the second time the board would have adopt a budget holding no tax levy increase under new contingent budget rules. A contingency budget would require an additional $1.6 million in spending reductions, which would bring the total reductions to around $5.9 million. Three of the last four school budgets have passed by more than 60 percent, including the 2011-12 budget at a 3.95 percent tax levy increase, 2010-11 at a 1.9 percent tax levy increase and 2009-10 at a 2.45 percent tax levy increase. The 2008-09 budget called for a 3.48 percent tax levy increase and was approved by 57 percent of voters. Assistant Superintendent for Business Matthew Bourgeois noted the budget-to-budget increase in spending has “steadily” declined during the same time period, with the 2008-09 budget holding a 10.85 percent increase in spending and the 2011-12 budget increasing spending by 0.97 percent. “We have been trying to do the right things in terms of containing costs and maintaining a relatively affordable tax levy increase to the best we can given the constraints we are working within,” Bourgeois said. The Niskayuna Administrators Association, Niskayuna Directors Association, cabinet members, unaffiliated employees and the superintendent and her secretary have agreed to pay increased costs for health insurance totaling $49,755. Other concessions talks are ongoing, with a focus to place any further savings into instruction and programming. Board members have expressed a desire to stay within district guidelines for elementary class sizes, with a particular focus at the kindergarten and first grade classrooms. “I have to say to our unions, you have to see how hard we are bleeding,” board member Robert Winchester said. “You must seriously consider the concessions.” “It would be my intention that any of those concessions that would be realized would be used in the classroom,” Salvaggio said. “If we were to receive concessions and we needed to make adjustments we would have the resources to do that.” Residents of Niskayuna Central School District will vote on the adopted 2012-13 budget on May 15 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the high school. For more details on the budget and the vote, visit www.NiskayunaSchools.org.