Keegan: Foundation aid still insufficient
By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
While total state aid for the North Syracuse Central School District inched up by 1.4 percent for the 2018-19 budget, the district is still being shorted more than $10 million in foundation aid, according to Associate Superintendent for Business Services Don Keegan.
Keegan presented the 2018-19 budget at the April 2 meeting of the North Syracuse Board of Education. (See infographic for a budget overview.)
“We did get $188,000 more in foundation aid than the governor had originally projected, which was okay. We kind of were hopeful that we would get more,” Keegan said.
Keegan said New York state owes North Syracuse schools $155 million in foundation aid under the formula set in 2007 after the Campaign for Fiscal Equity battled the state in court for 13 years. For 2018-19, the state is granting North Syracuse $48.2 million in foundation aid, but Keegan said that the state should be paying an additional $10.6 million in foundation aid.
Fortunately, the state has provided the district more than $8.5 million in transportation aid — a 2.4 percent increase from the current year’s budget — and $4.8 million for BOCES. In total, North Syracuse is getting about $69.5 million for the 2018-19 school year.
“We’re thankful for that, and that clearly plugged the deficit we were dealing with the last meeting,” Keegan said.
The district is also plugging that deficit by raising taxes 2.94 percent and appropriating $2.4 million of the fund balance.
“We’re still leaning on fund balance,” Keegan said.
Read on for more highlights of the 2018-19 school budget. The full budget is available at NSCSD.org.
Personnel changes
Keegan said the district will have a net increase in full-time positions next year. The personnel changes also take into account the retirement of 21 teachers and seven teaching assistants.
Here are the highlights:
- Two consultant teachers for the Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program
- Increase of 2.0 FTE in special education
- North Syracuse Junior High School: 1.0 FTE increase in staff for art, health and family and consumer sciences
- Cicero-North Syracuse High School: 1.0 FTE increase in social studies and 1.0 FTE increase for science to accommodate electives such as meteorology, astronomy, American History Through Film and sports media
- The elimination of German allows for increased staffing for Spanish, French and English as a New Language
- Safety, security and social-emotional well-being: North Syracuse will add two part-time school psychologists for Gillette Road Middle School and Roxboro Road Middle School (0.5 full-time equivalent at each school). The district is also in talks with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office to add another school resource officer.
Also on the ballot
In addition to the 2018-19 budget, voters will be asked to weigh in on two propositions:
Bus purchases: The district is looking to buy:
- Twelve 65-passenger diesel school buses
- One 42-passenger diesel school bus with one to three wheelchair positions, hydraulic lift and air conditioning
- One 48-passenger bus with air conditioning
- One delivery truck
The total estimated cost of all 15 vehicles is $1,472,440.
Salina Free Library: Residents of District No. 1 in Salina will decide whether the annual appropriation for the Salina Free Library should be increased from $434,609 to $445,474.
School board: School board members George Harrington, Paul Farfaglia and Michael Leone are running for re-election to their seats. The full three-year terms begin July 1, 2018.
Also up for grabs is the seat of former BOE member Jacqueline A. Owens, who resigned in March. The candidate who receives the fourth highest number of votes will be elected to complete Owens’ term ending June 30, 2019.
