Bethlehem schools will see nearly no cuts in classrooms next school year if voters approve a $90.4 million spending plan, but the same can’t be said for athletics.
The Bethlehem Central School District Board of Education opted to tap $1.75 million of reserve funds in the 2013-14 budget, leaving about $220,000 worth of reductions to get comfortably below the district’s maximum allowable tax levy. District administrators had recommended board members use caution in spending reserve funds. But making more cuts wasn’t palatable to a majority of the board.
Around three hours into the board’s Wednesday, April 17, meeting, it decided to vote on the proposed spending plan totaling that holds a property tax levy increase of 3.59 percent. The board passed the budget in a 6-1 vote.
Only board member Caitrin Navarro voted against the budget, saying she primarily objected to cutting all freshman level sports for around a $70,000 savings.
“I don’t believe in reducing a full level of sports,” Navarro said. “I think you only reduce what is not possible for the kids.”
Athletic supporters cry foul
While reviewing the proposed reductions, Board President Diane Giacone Stever and Vice President Matt Downey joined Navarro’s call to place eliminating freshman sport. Board member Laura Ladd Bierman said school districts are trending towards eliminating freshman sports and there are opportunities outside school sports for students to play on a team.
Navarro countered that Bethlehem shouldn’t follow trends and eliminate freshman sports when there is still competition. Modified teams are generally more often supported in the Suburban Council, according to district officials.
“I think we are a leader, not a follower,” Navarro said. “There are teams for us to play. I don’t think playing on a team outside of school and playing on a team for school are the same thing at all.”
Navarro said students learn “way too much” from athletic opportunities and they instill school spirit and pride.
Board member Charmaine Wijeyesinghe, whose daughter plays modified basketball, said the modified teams would likely become more competitive, which might not be a bad thing. Wijeyesinghe wanted parents to realize their children should be practicing and learning basic skills if they want to play for a school team.
Wijeyesinghe supported eliminating one level of sports. Administrators said the change would affect about 160 students over 11 sports teams.
“This is an amount of that I believe we need to use,” she said. “Should we go deeper without taking this cut, it will affect the academic program.”
Peter Keane, father of two students, said he was concerned about cuts to sports. He said Bethlehem’s athletics budget appears average when compared to area districts.
“We are talking about … trying to shave things so that we are not cutting an entire group of students. This is an entire group of students,” Keane said. “You are cutting roughly a quarter of the kids who currently participate … so that seems like a pretty severe cut to make.”
Bethlehem Central Athletic Association President Tim Maniccia said athletics account for 1.3 percent of the district’s budget and cutting $70,000 is 5.9 percent of the athletics budget. Maniccia said the $70,000 represents roughly a third of the cuts proposed by the board.
“There just seems to be, to me, an equity issue there and proportionality issue,” Maniccia said. “I totally understand the logic – if we run out of opponents it doesn’t make any sense. … I think many of us in the room and community would feel a lot better about this if we actually knew that all these other schools were going to cut.”
Board member Lynne Lenhardt said the district has “done its best” to keep athletic programming, but cuts had to be made.
“At some point, despite the fact that it is unpopular to do so … I think the academics have taken the hit and I think that we do need to cut this level of sports,” Lenhardt said. “Over the years we have cut more in the other areas then we have in sports.”
Freshman lacrosse was already scheduled to be eliminated next school year because there are no opponents.
Maintaining instructional programming
The reductions proposed outside of athletics include deferring a small building project worth $100,000, reducing one hall monitor position at the high school for a $35,000 savings and cutting 0.2 full-time equivalent positions at the high school for around $14,000 in savings.
Administrators said using $1.75 million of reserve funds to balance the budget falls in line with the district’s long term financial plan, despite administrators recommending $250,000 less be used next school year.
“I know the board is going to struggle with this no matter what,” Superintendent Thomas Douglas said. “The reason why we put $1.5 (million) is because we have to step down. If we stay at that level we will have to come up with an additional $250,000 next year.”
Douglas said the state aid situation might be more favorable in the 2014-15 budget as it will be an election year, but he is more concerned about the following year.
If the board followed what administrators recommended, cuts would have been felt in the high school and middle school classrooms with reduced course offerings and social worker availability. The transportation department also would have faced cuts in off site repairs and parts and supplies totaling $50,000.
Reductions to elementary schools were placed far down the list, not appearing until the 25th reduction out of 33 offered. Wijeyesinghe said elementary programming has taken a big hit already.
“The last couple of years we have been slaughtering the elementary programs,” she said.
Stever said cuts would have been deeper if the district had not received a late increase in state aid.
The adopted budget increases year-to-year spending by 2.51 percent, or $2.35 million. The district’s tax cap was at 3.64 percent. Last year, the district put forward a budget above the tax cap.
“As a board we came together and came up with the best budget that we could using the reserves that we have and with the increase in state aid we were able to minimize the cuts that we had to make,” Downey said after the meeting.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for the Board of Education meeting Wednesday, May 8, at 7 p.m. District residents can vote on the proposed 2013-14 budget Tuesday, May 21, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., at the high school.