Vote will require supermajority to pass
By Sarah Hall
Editor
The prognosis for North Syracuse’s 2016-17 budget looks a lot less grim after the release of the final state budget, according to Assistant Superintendent for Management Don Keegan.
Keegan presented an updated budget at the North Syracuse Central School District’s Board of Education meeting on April 4. The presentation included final numbers from the 2016-17 New York state budget, approved by the state legislature on April 1. The final budget includes an additional $1.2 million in state aid over the budget presented March 25, including $46,112 in foundation aid, bringing the total to $43,747,558, as well as a full restoration of Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) funds in the amount of $1,166,757.
“We were disappointed not to receive more,” Keegan said. “We really needed at least $1.4 million, but we got $1.2 [million].”
In order to make up the difference, the district has decided to appropriate an additional $200,000 from the fund balance, bringing the total amount taken from the fund balance to $950,000.
The total 2016-17 budget includes expenditures of $155.2 million, the vast majority of which are salaries and benefits. The proposed tax levy increase for this year is $890,665, or 1.09 percent. That amounts to $25.30 per $100,000 of assessed value before STAR. Because the tax levy increase is above the district’s tax cap, it will require a supermajority to pass.
No layoffs or cuts are required in the 2016-17 budget, though a few positions will be cut due to enrollment changes. The budget includes the following staffing changes:
- Four teaching assistants will be retiring; they will not be replaced.
- Due to declining enrollment at the elementary level, two teaching positions and 0.8 special area positions will be eliminated.
- At the secondary level, 1.7 additional teaching positions will be added
- Two additional special education positions will be added in accordance with the district’s special education study.
- In accordance with the district’s agreement with the NSEA, two additional consultant teachers will be added to support new teachers.
In addition, several teachers will be retiring; the difference between their salaries and those of their replacements is $243,740, and the district estimates a savings of $397,101 in fuel and utility costs.
While this budget doesn’t cut any student programs, there is no room to bring back any programs that were previously cut.
“It’s disappointing that the final state aid numbers will not allow for the restoration of critical programs that were cut from previous budgets,” Keegan said. “There are a lot of things we were very hopeful we would be able to add back into the budget.”
The district hopes to realize some savings in health insurance; earlier this year, the district switched from POMCO to Excellus BlueCross/BlueShield for its third party health insurance coverage, where it hopes to achieve better network coverage.
Despite its best efforts to cut costs, Keegan said the district’s tax levy increase is well above its tax cap for this year, which is just .0012. Keegan explained that the tax cap was so low this year because of a lack of inflation.
“If you look at that allowable levy growth factor, that’s a big driver in our ability to increase the levy. It’s either 2 percent or the consumer price index, whichever is lower,” he said. “The CPI was .0012, less than 1 percent, which was why our levy increase was so low. Inflation wasn’t there, and therefore the though process in the formula was that you can’t increase taxes if there wasn’t an increase in inflation.”
However, the district’s costs have still increased due to contractual obligations and costs outside of its control. Keegan criticized the tax cap legislation and said something needed to change in order for districts to maintain their programming.
“Something’s got to give,” he said. “If this tax cap legislation doesn’t change, I’m concerned about ability to enhance programs and even maybe sustain current programming.”
As it is, North Syracuse spends the second least per pupil of the 23 districts served by Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES, and the district is ranked 652 out of 669 in the state in terms of per-pupil expenditures.
“Across the state, among larger districts, North Syracuse’s spending is relatively low per pupil,” Keegan said.
Superintendent Annette Speach asked if it was true that Liverpool was getting as much as $1,000 more per student in foundation aid from the state. Keegan said that was likely true due to inequity in the way foundation aid is distributed.
“When the economy hit the skids, all of these state aid formulas were put on hold, so they’re not operating. Things have gotten out of whack. So what was a bad set of formulas that was attempted to be fixed with foundation aid got put on hold, and the disparity in the way districts were funded – it’s inequitable. It’s not fair,” he said. “And districts of the same wealth ratio will get dramatically different amounts of state aid, and yes, it can be as much as $1,000 per pupil.”
While the GEA was restored in this year’s budget, Keegan said the battle over public education funding is far from over.
“The next battleground is this foundation aid,” he said. “If we had gotten $9.4 million more in foundation aid this year, North Syracuse would not be in the dire financial straits that we’re in. The students, the staff, the community did a great job taking about GEA. Now we need to do the same thing with foundation aid to get it funded at the proper levels.”
The board will adopt a final budget at its April 18 meeting. There will be a public hearing on May 3 and the public will vote on the budget on May 17.
Bus proposition also on the ballot
The district is also asking residents to vote on a vehicle bonding proposition, which includes the following:
- 10 65-passenger diesel school buses
- 1 42-passenger diesel school bus with one to three wheelchair positions, hydraulic lift and air conditioning
- 1 48-passenger bus with air conditioning
- 1 Suburban
- 1 bucket loader
The total estimated cost is $1,566,828 ($2.10 per year per $100,000 of assessed value)
