By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
While the Warriors and the Northstars often butt heads on the basketball court and the football field, the Liverpool and North Syracuse school districts presented a united front at their joint forum March 9, titled “Educating Our Future: How Equitable Funding Promotes School Success.”
“Tonight, we’re not rivals,” said Annette Speach, superintendent of the North Syracuse Central School District. “We’re here for a very common purpose, and that is the education of our students.”
According to the two districts, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is not following the Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s recommendations for distributing aid to school districts and is proposing the elimination of the Foundation Aid formula. This leaves schools in the dark each year as to how much state aid they will receive.
Katie Phillips, Liverpool’s assistant superintendent for administrative services, said the costs for both school districts to educate general and special education students are lower than the state average, both districts fall below the average Combined Wealth Ratio (CWR) and both districts have a large number of students who receive free or reduced price lunch.
Despite these factors, North Syracuse Board of Education President Mike Shusda explained, Liverpool and North Syracuse are not receiving their due in state aid. Because of the freeze in Foundation Aid this year, Liverpool is losing $3 million, North Syracuse is losing $9.4 million and BOCES is underfunded by $92 million.
Liverpool Superintendent Mark Potter said Liverpool has lost $92 million over the last 10 years; North Syracuse, meanwhile, has been denied nearly $179 million in the same period, according to Speach.
State-mandated costs like insurance and retirement have continued to rise for school districts, as have other expenses outside of their control, but with the amount provided by the state fluctuating each year and too often remaining insufficient, districts must rely on increased property taxes to balance their budgets.
Potter said school districts are asking for “equitable, sustainable, predictable, adequate” school funding.
Students speak out
In addition to the usual slides of facts and figures, the forum put a human face on the issue of school funding. Current and former Liverpool and North Syracuse students spoke about the ways in which programming cuts and teacher losses have affected them.
Students at Cicero-North Syracuse High School made a video that depicted scenes of studying, socializing and playing sports with a voiceover by a student. Throughout the video, students fade away from the shots, leaving behind empty classrooms and lunch tables to represent the elimination of teaching positions and programming.
“Let’s give our students the opportunities they deserve: to learn, to create, to inspire, to grow,” the voiceover said. “The right to a basic, sound education is not a privilege — it’s a right.”
Jerimiah Butler, a C-NS senior who worked on the video, said New York state has been “starving” districts such as North Syracuse and Liverpool. Butler asked the audience to imagine what could have been — higher test scores, more sports teams — if the districts had not been underfunded in the last decade.
C-NS junior Brody Guido thanked the audience for attending the forum.
“The mere fact that all of you showed up tonight is a sign that you want change just as much as we do, positive change for our students, our districts and our future,” he said.
Guido said budget cuts have led to larger classes, which make it difficult for students to learn and receive one-on-one attention from teachers. He said he also was concerned about funding for sports teams, which teach life skills such as leadership and responsibility.
“Although I have not been affected by any of these cuts so far, my younger brother possibly could be,” Guido said. “I want him to have the same opportunities that I’ve had and positive experiences that I have cultivated.”
Vincent Scipione, a 2013 C-NS graduate, asked the crowd to consider the importance of extracurricular activities.
“They all mean something to someone, whether it’s one, 10 or 100 students,” he said.
Scipione also highlighted the importance of electives, which keep kids interested in school and help them cultivate ideas for future careers. Scipione said he took a cybersecurity class in 10th grade and now is about to graduate from Syracuse University with a degree in information security.
“That opportunity,” he said of the class, “is unfortunately not available anymore.”
Alexis Hayden, a senior at Liverpool High School, shared the story of how the closing of Wetzel Elementary School affected her. She said she had to endure a longer bus ride, change schools and teachers and make new friends.
“It drastically changed my sixth-grade year,” Hayden said.
The next step
State Sen. Dave Valesky and Assemblywoman Pam Hunter were among the handful of Central New York-area legislators present at the forum.
Valesky said he found the presentation “very informative, particularly the young people who shared their thoughts about programs.” Hunter said she thought the delivery of budget information by students was “spot on,” as students and their families are the ones who feel the daily impact of school budget woes.
“This is their life now,” she said. “I know — I have an 11th-grader.”
Hunter said funding cuts have serious consequences for schools, such as when the Syracuse City School District was forced to lay off 400 teachers a few years ago.
“You don’t come back from that,” she said.
Valesky said the state senate and the assembly are slated to pass their one-house budget resolutions this week.
“We’re right in the thick of our budget process right now,” he said. “Many of us believe that we need to identify additional money for schools like North Syracuse. [It’s a] priority for the legislature as a whole.”
Hunter said the CNY delegation of state legislators and the Democratic conference in the state assembly are striving to change the aid formula to be more equitable and make reasonable compromises within the state budget.
“If we don’t invest now in education, we’re going to be paying for it later,” she said. “It shouldn’t have to be more education, less something else.”
Given the current economic and political climate, the state needs to shoulder more of the load for school budgets, Hunter said.
“Especially with everything happening at the federal level, the state is going to have to carry [more costs],” she said.
At the Feb. 27 Liverpool school board meeting, BOE Vice President Neil Fitzpatrick said the legislature should “flex its muscle” when it comes to demanding equitable funding for schools instead of making too many compromises just to meet the April 1 budget deadline.
“Review of the budget needs to be careful and considerate and not rushed,” Hunter said.
But Valesky said an on-time budget is important for schools to be able to finish their budgets in time for the April 24 school budget vote.
“My opinion has always been that the April 1 deadline is a deadline in law,” Valesky said. “We ought to be serious about it. It’s very important for the state to have its budget in place by April 1 for school districts.”
Hunter advised residents contacting their legislators to be persistent and to articulate a specific outcome they’d like to see. Valesky said the community forum is one important way to show lawmakers how a community feels about an issue, but it is just the first step in stressing the importance of school aid.
“Communication is critically important,” he said, “not only with us as legislators but also directly with the governor’s office. [It’s] very, very important for people to take that seriously.”
Learn more, do more
• If you missed last week’s forum, watch a recording of it online at bit.ly/schoolfundingforum
• Watch the student-made video about the impact of programming cuts at nscsd.org/news.cfm?story=1925
• Find contact information for your state senators and assemblymembers, as well as a form letter about the importance of equitable school funding, at bit.ly/legislatorletter
• Contact the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo by phone at (518) 474-8390, by mail at The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of New York State, NYS State Capitol Building Albany, NY 12224 or visit governor.ny.gov to fill out an online contact form.
