February 10, 2011
In some ways, it is a little bit better than the district had expected. State aid projections for next year are in and they show that New Paltz will stay the same or even get $250,000 more than expected. Up until earlier this month, the schools were budgeting based on their best guess.
“We just received the governor’s numbers,” Assistant Superintendent Richard Linden explained, adding that state aid was “a lot better than I was thinking a few weeks ago.”
Despite the little bit of good news, a few factors have pushed the administrators into a box. Health insurance costs and pension contributions have both gone up. With both those contributing factors, that equates to cuts.
The frustrating part about some of the items driving up costs for local taxpayers is the inability of the school board to do anything about it.
“We can’t solve the health care issue for New Paltz in New Paltz,” board President Don Kerr said. “We don’t have the power to fix the health care crisis.”
“Nobody here wants this,” the president added. “There’s a lot of good ideas from the standpoint of common sense that we can’t do.”
No matter which budget plan the Board of Education decides on, chances are it’ll mean that about 28 to 45 full-time equivalent jobs are cut. The budgets, ranging from $50.37 million to $49.3 million, all cut summer school, after school tutoring and academic intervention, and all will increase elementary school class sizes.
To fully understand what the school board is talking about during budget season, one needs to learn their jargon. The school board differentiates its budgets by the impact they will have on the tax levy. So the “5.25 percent budget” is one that equates to 5.25 percent more taxes being levied in 2011-2012 -- not a 5.25 percent budget-to-budget increase from what was spent this year.
The way job cuts are talked about is also a little misleading. The district tabulates layoffs as full-time equivalent positions, meaning cuts that sometimes end up looking like fractions of a person.
For instance, the 5.25 percent budget is $50.37 million and would represent a 3.15 percent budget-to-budget increase. Reductions in the 3.5 percent budget are pretty steep compared to the 5.25 percent counterpart, but they’re steeper still at a 2 percent budget.
The 2 percent budget weighs in at $49.3 million. It would cut 14.3 elementary jobs, 4.5 jobs from the middle school, 3.25 jobs from the high school, 5 jobs from the special education teaching ranks, and it would mean the elimination of JV sports and the temporary closure of either Duzine Elementary School or New Paltz Middle School. Consolidating would mean a further 7-10 jobs would get cut.
Public wants cuts to administration,
sports kept safe
Approximately 100 people came out to the Feb. 3 meeting. A majority of people who spoke felt a bit uneasy about the unevenness of the cuts, especially since they didn’t see much loss at the district office level.
“I didn’t see any cuts in administration,” said Ira Margolis, a New Paltz resident. “You’re cutting one janitor, but 23 teachers?”
Margolis urged the board to remember that any cut to teachers was one that directly degraded the quality of programs available for students.
New Paltz resident Kevin Barry asked the school board to consider asking JV coaches to think about taking no pay for their work leading the teams. Such a move might save JV sports if a 3.5 percent or 2 percent budget is adopted.
According to Superintendent Rice, the schools now spend about $48,000 on JV sports and that money goes toward paying the coaching staff.
Cheryl Murphy, of New Paltz, urged the board and superintendent to look at out-of-the-box solutions, including partnerships with the college.
“It terrifies me to think about what it could mean,” Murphy said. “I think if we put our heads together, we could come up with some really innovative solutions.”
A few parents asked why the school board would even consider closing Duzine when the middle school has such obvious problems. Right now, the middle school is facing at least $1.5 million worth of roof work, possibly more with a recent gutter failure.
Ruth Quinn, of Esopus, urged the school board not to close Duzine during a consolidation. With about 930 elementary kids stuffed into one building, it would likely have an adverse impact on kids -- especially kids with autism or autism-spectrum disorders.
“I would like to see more administrative cuts,” Quinn said. “I don’t want to see us degrade our school district and see us get to a place we can’t get back from.”
The school board looks to give
voters high-ball option
While the sentiment wasn’t 100 percent universal on the Board of Education, a majority of the board kept coming back to the idea of giving voters that 5.25 percent tax levy increase, or $50.37 million budget.
“We are special,” board Vice President KT Tobin-Flusser said of the New Paltz schools. With the quality of the New Paltz schools recognized on a national level, there is something to preserve in the schools now.
Tobin-Flusser said she’d like to see the 5.25 percent budget brought to the voters. Trustee Daniel Torres agreed, saying voters should get to see the higher figure, which would by default preserve more of the educational program.
Trustee Edgar Rodriguez didn’t like the idea of dismantling the well-oiled education machine New Paltz has running now. But when it came to consolidation, Rodriguez wanted to see a more decisive decision.
“I don’t think we can be talking about temporary cuts,” he said. “Our cuts have to be permanent.”
He added that he felt the board needed to confront the reality of the situation, where taxes are growing out of control, accept it and work toward change. “We need to engage the public.”
Board member Bob Rich said he didn’t know if he could get on board with any proposal just yet.
“We don’t really have the details yet,” Rich explained. “I’m really not sold yet on where I’m going to be.”
The school board trustee thanked the people who came out to the Feb. 3 meeting, and noted that New Paltz had an incredibly talented teaching staff.
“In looking at all these cuts, let’s not forget what we have,” he added.
Patrick Rausch again asked the superintendent to look for ways to negotiate with the unions for concession or a salary freeze. Employee salaries and benefits are easily the biggest part of the expenses the district has to pay.
“That’s the only place we’ve got to go. Other than that, you’re cutting,” Rausch said. If the teachers union, for instance, could agree to a pay freeze, it would preserve the jobs of their co-workers. “I really don’t like the idea of cutting all their jobs.”
To get a look at the full presentation, with more details about how the 5.25 percent, 3.5 percent and 2 percent budgets stack up with each other, head to www.newpaltz.k12.ny.us and look in the “Announcements” section.
New Paltz parents send superintendent their own budget proposal
So far the process to build the New Paltz school budget for 2011-2012 hasn’t been easy or pain-free. Budget talks have left the Board of Education and the administrators pondering whether or not they want to close either Duzine Elementary School or New Paltz Middle School as a temporary cost-saving measure. Anthony Aebi and Eric Schwartz, both from Esopus, created a blow-by-blow document showing the school district where it could potentially save $1.3 million next year. Specifically, the men ask the district to consider pay freezes for teachers, pay freezes for non-union employees -- including Superintendent Maria Rice -- laying off one of the assistant superintendents and shedding full-time office staffers helping that assistant superintendent.
“I have nothing against administration and clerical,” Schwartz explained, but he said he felt Superintendent Rice’s office could have been more creative in how cuts were doled out.
Administrators were left mostly unscathed in the draft budget proposals worked up by the district office. Even with a 5.25 percent tax levy increase -- or a $50.37 million budget -- 9.7 full-time equivalent positions would get the axe at the elementary level.
If the schools want to consolidate the schools, why not have a K-5 building with one principal. That would save about $100,000 in perpetuity for a principal’s salary alone. But the move would also cut out redundant staff members in a combined Duzine-Lenape.
On top of all that, the two men would like to see all the superintendents and principals take a cue from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and take a 5 percent pay cut until the economy recovers.
Aebi spoke up during the Feb. 3 meeting and asked the Board of Education why they were ignoring the budget proposal. Both Superintendent Rice and the school board denied that accusation.
“The board received that by e-mail,” board President Don Kerr told the men, adding that he’d printed off hard copies to give to the six other board members that evening as well.
Aebi’s and Schwartz’s e-mail almost went viral as it spread to local parents in the New Paltz School District. At least 20 to 30 people had seen it last week. The Feb. 3 meeting also featured an impressive number of parents and taxpayers -- nearly 100 people showed up, easily double the number of people at the Jan. 27 meeting.
The superintendent also said she’d gotten the men’s budget suggestions and said that her office was looking into it to see which of those suggestions might be possible.
One suggestion already stood out for her as one that couldn’t be changed -- the amounts of what goes into employee pension or what they make for salary. Those two items are entangled in a mix of both state regulations and contract negotiations, Rice said.
Read more: Hudson Valley Times - Growing pains New Paltz school board eyes cuts even under rosiest budget
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