By Lauren Young
Staff Writer
While increases to security measures are proposed for the 2018-19 Fayetteville-Manlius school budget, the district faces dramatic decreases in state and foundation aid, especially when compared to other area schools.
A public hearing for the proposed budget of $82,898,692 — representing a 2.69 percent increase — was held during a Board of Education meeting on May 8.
Increases in the budget are driven by cost increases to the retirement system, health insurance, worker’s compensation and diesel fuel, said Bill Furlong, assistant superintendent for business services, who presented the budget to the board.
The district’s budget includes a proposed tax levy of $61,666,302, which is a 3.57 percent increase from last year, with the estimated tax rate increasing by 1.90 percent — equaling .49 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, or an annual increase of $48.69.
The budget proposes to set aside over $500,000 to enhance security over the next year.
“The real key is trying to enhance our security,” said Furlong.
About half of the $250,000 will go toward security personnel, as the district is looking to hire one more school resource officer and one school social worker.
Though money is budgeted for additional teaching positons, Furlong said they may transfer those funds toward hiring another social worker instead.
Board member Marissa Mims asked if there could be a budget transfer to allow for the hiring of another SRO officer, mentioning how Mott Road Elementary School currently shares one with Fayetteville-Manlius High School. Furlong said yes, as they would be able to do a budget transfer after the budget is established.
One Mott Road Elementary parent asked about a concern her, along with a few other parents, had about the absence of an officer on all school properties — namely at Mott Road Elementary.
“There are several Mott Road parents who are concerned about the sharing of the school resource officer between the high school and Mott Road,” said Larissa Brenner, a parent of two children attending Mott Road Elementary with one child attending Eagle Hill Middle School next year.
“I think it’s great that the board is going to increase the number of SROs by one, but if there were an incident at Mott Road … if the school resource officer hops in the car the instant the incident happens, luckily they’ll get there 10 minutes later, and that’s not sufficient,” she said. “We realize this isn’t an issue of geography, but in a better situation, the high school should really have two school resource officers because of the number of students there. So, we would like the board to at least consider the possibility of having that one assigned to the high school and looking at adding another for Mott Road.”
She added that while herself and other parents realize the expense of hiring one officer per school, she said that “if there was at least one on each campus, I think that would go very far as an investment in our children’s security.”
Superintendent Dr. Craig Tice responded to Brenner and said, “We do budget for additional staff every year, not knowing what the enrollment is going to be,” and added, “that being said, we do have an opportunity to do those transfers moving forward.”
Furlong added that the district has budged $450,000 this year and another $450,000 for next year to fund smaller capital projects on an annual basis. Next year, there are three main things the district is looking to fund with the $450,000 — all of which are related to school security.
One is a replacement of the fire alarm system at Mott Road Elementary, and another is to complete the upgrade of the fire alarm system at Eagle Hill Middle School. The district would also like to do some facility improvements for high school security.
While efforts to improve security are high, funds from foundation and state aid remain low.
Compared to surrounding districts — including North Syracuse, West Genesee, Liverpool, Baldwinsville, East Syracuse-Minoa and Jamesville-DeWitt — Fayetteville-Manlius received the lowest amount of foundation aid. Foundation aid, Furlong said, is the main aid category the district received from the state.
The West Genesee district is most similar to Fayetteville-Manlius said Furlong, but West Genesee received an increase of $871,086 of foundation aid compared to Fayetteville-Manlius’ $178,138 — nearly a $700,000 difference.
That amount is “not adequate” and “not equitable,” said Furlong.
The state aid increase the district is receiving — $250,000 — is also “truly inadequate,” said Furlong. “There’s this foundation aid formula, which continues to be underfunded, and in our case, if the state allowed that formula to run and fully fund it, we would receive another $5 million in state aid,” said Furlong. “But because they do not fully fund that aid formal, we feel that we are being shortchanged.”
Furlong said they will continue to press elected officials to answer to “the disparity, and how aid is handed out.”
“We’re just not seeing a growth in state aid, which continues to be a problem and will be a problem in the future,” he said.
As for changes in state revenue, BOCES aid will experience an increase of $423,988, while building aid will see a $343,000 decrease.
“As for cost increases, I mentioned that we have some things outside of our control,” said Furlong, which includes expenses for the teacher’s retirement system. The system will increase to 10.7 percent next year — an overall increase of 8.5 percent, or about $300,000.
Worker’s compensation insurance is also looking to experience a 25 percent increase — or about $100,000.
Furlong said the most significant increase will be in health insurance, where there will be a seven percent increase in premiums.
