School district leaders again sought community input before budget deliberations begin, but this year, residents had new insight on the excess capacity of its buildings.
Guilderland Central School District held a community summit Wednesday, Nov. 19, which gathered feedback from residents on what the future of its schools should be amid declining enrollment and diminishing resources. Unlike previous workshops, where residents primarily tackled how to close a certain year’s budget gap, the district wanted community members to help chart its long-term plan.
The fundamental question addressed was how the district could commit to its core mission with available resources. District officials offered up four options — school closure, redistricting, repurposing, and regrouping grade levels — and solicited any other options residents proposed.
“We are facing a lot of difficult questions and the solutions we have found so far have been difficult, to say the least, but we are kind of running out of ideas for how we close revenue gaps,” said Superintendent of Schools Marie Wiles.
Wiles said participants were only being asked what options should be considered, not necessarily what would be done.
There were 74 people selected to participate in the meeting, with the maximum allowed at 100. Some board members and district staff attended the summit, too, but only observed conservations. All five attendance zones were represented among selected participants with 18 from Altamont, 17 from Lynnwood, 15 of Pine Bush, 14 from Guilderland and 10 from Westmere, according to the district.
“Tonight’s event is really not about us, but it’s about you and what you think, and what you can contribute by way of ideas and thoughts as we grapple with some pretty challenging issues,” said Wiles.
The projected budget gap in next school year’s spending plan falls around $129,000, which is considerably lower than in recent years. Despite the shrinking gap for the 2015-16 budget, Wiles said it would be a short reprieve rather than the norm.
The 2016-17 budget is projected to face a $1.98 million gap, which would stay relatively flat over the next four school years.
“The idea here is while we seem to have a small breather for the upcoming year, it will be short lived,” said Wiles.
Wiles said the district has already cut staffing across all levels, from administration to teachers, with nearly 228 full-time equivalent positions eliminated since the 2009-10 school year. During the same timeframe, 18 percent of teachers, 45 percent of teaching assistants, 20 percent of support staff and 22 percent of administration positions have been eliminated.
Enrollment has declined since the 2004-05 school year, which saw 5,645 students enrolled. This school year there are 728 fewer students enrolled compared to that year.
Wiles said the most optimistic enrollment forecast for 2023 would have 4,877 students, or 40 fewer than this year. The most pessimistic forecast puts the district at 4,470 students in 2023.
Approximately one-third of the school district population is of childbearing age, according to Wiles, and the estimated median resident age is 40 years old. Roughly 25 percent of households have one person 65 years or older, while another 25 percent have an individual 18 years or younger.
“We have to think about what does the housing market have to do, or what will need to happen to have more people live in Guilderland that are of child-bearing age and actually have children,” said Wiles.
One idea suggested was to develop a marketing plan to attract families, or those planning to have a family, to the district by highlighting its strengths.
One person had crossed out the “none of the above” option, which district presented as a fifth option about its other four, and wrote “all of the above.” Groups were directed to write out their ideas on massive “mind maps.”
A more complicated proposal some group members discussed was redistricting and possibly absorbing parts of other school districts.
Another suggestion was to poll residents on if they were OK with raising taxes if it was being done to “maintain the mission and quality of education,” which received a lot of support.
There were some attendees who had experienced fifth-grade at the middle school and lent their support to regrouping grades that way. Earlier this year, that idea was presented in the now set aside scenarios from the district’s building capacity study, but it was tied to closing an elementary school so savings would be achieved.
