By David Tyler

On Monday night, the F-M school board seemed united in exploring the expansion of its summer school program to provide additional learning opportunities for students whose education has been interrupted by the Covid-19 crisis. Although no vote was taken each board member expressed support in concept for expanding summer school options.

Board members called into the meeting from their homes and the audio was livestreamed over YouTube.

“I’m definitely in favor of exploring this,” said board member Daniel Seidberg of the summer school concept. “The high school kids have very little time to catch up.”

“My gut is telling me that we will have a lot of interest in something like this moving forward,” Superintendent Dr. Craig Tice told the board.

Summer school would likely start after July 4 and last until mid-August. It would not be a mandatory program for all students, but would be available for students who are falling behind during the crisis.

The board encouraged the administration to search out possible state and federal funding streams for this, but the cost may need to be shouldered by local taxpayers.

“For right now, we have to somehow quantify what summer school means,” said Assistant Superintendent William Furlong. “We need to make an assumption on how many students are we talking, what would the staffing need be and then take a look at how much is that going to cost us from a labor and benefits standpoint.”

Furlong said there is little wiggle room in the personnel and benefits portion of the budget, but if the board moves forward with the summer school program it would likely mean cuts in the discretionary section of the budget, which includes items like furniture, supplies and other programs.

Currently, F-M works with other area districts for its summer school program. Tice indicated that if the demand is strong enough, this year’s summer school program may be limited to F-M students.

Tice mentioned that the state of Virginia had canceled school for the remainder of the school year but didn’t want to speculate on what New York might do.

Virus creates budget unknowns

The coronavirus crisis is also creating havoc with the district’s budgeting process.

“We really have no idea right now where the state aid is going to come out,” Furlong said. “With everything going on at the national level and with the economy, you really have no idea where the state revenues are going to be until they finalize their budget, and then you have a benchmark to go by.”

The state budget deadline is April 1, but it may be delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Before the pandemic, the state was facing a sizable budget deficit. The economic challenges created by the crisis will only exacerbate the state’s fiscal woes, which could affect the amount of state aid New York provides local districts.

Based on the state aid numbers in the governor’s original budget proposal, the overall tax levy would increase by 3.12 percent, but the growth in the tax base should make the tax rate increase substantially less, Furlong said.

“We’re still expecting growth in assessments that would almost entirely offset the tax levy increase, and right now we are conservatively estimating the tax rate increase at less than one quarter of 1 percent,” Furlong said.

“Right now we are continuing with what the current timeline is until we hear differently,” Furlong said. “I do wish I could have more optimistic news here.”