BALDWINSVILLE — A group of parents urged the Baldwinsville Central School District Board of Education not to cut the third-grade strings program for the 2021-22 school year. Several parents spoke in support of the program at the March 15 BOE meeting.

On the chopping block is a part-time (0.4 FTE) strings instructor position with a salary of $24,000 and retirement benefits worth $2,352.

The third-grade strings program is not the only budget cut district administrators are proposing. Also among the proposed reductions are one full-time art teacher ($60,000), two freshman football coaches ($12,888) and a yet-to-be announced retirement that will not be filled ($114,141). Including retirement benefits, these reductions would shave $230,447 off the 2021-22 budget.

Acting Superintendent Joe DeBarbieri said the district is facing a $1.4 million budget shortfall.

Elisabeth Smith has two children who began playing the cello as third-graders at McNamara Elementary. Her daughter is now a senior and her son is a sophomore.

“I’ve been present for two previous attempts … to end the third-grade strings program,” Smith said over Zoom at the BOE meeting.

A proposal to hire an instructor who can teach both band and strings is not a good idea, Smith said.

“Finding someone with both of those certifications would be really finding a needle in a haystack,” she said. “To be honest, when I look at what happened at Durgee last year when a band teacher was hired as a sub for the maternity leave of the strings teacher, that person just repeatedly fell back on their training as a band teacher. They grouped people wrong, the sound was different, the instruction was off. … It was a mess.”

Smith added that Baldwinsville leads its neighbors in the number of student musicians who qualify for All-County, All-State and Symphoria ensembles.

Kim Gould is a band teacher for another district and the parent of a sophomore in Baldwinsville. She echoed Smith’s sentiments.

“A lot of other districts may start fourth [grade] but I think B’ville has a head start advantage by starting third,” Gould said. “As a band teacher, I definitely would not feel comfortable teaching strings. They’re two completely different specialized programs.”

Smith also said strings students have missed out on playing time because of the pandemic even though they don’t breathe through their instruments like woodwind and brass players and don’t project air like vocalists.

“There’s no air shared. There’s no air projected when you’re playing strings together,” she said.

Dr. Stella Castro-Gascon said her children have complained about having to practice by themselves.

“They say it’s very lonely to practice alone. They say there’s something enlightening about playing with their peers in an orchestra. It intensifies the pleasure and satisfaction of creating beautiful music together,” she said.

Castro-Gascon referenced the renovation of the Baker High School auditorium, completed in late 2017.

“Why build a beautiful new auditorium if you can’t fill it with the exemplary music that B’ville is known for?” she said.

Several BOE members expressed support for the third-grade strings program, but they acknowledged the delicate balance of creating a budget.

“We’re not going to get there without something hurting along the way,” said BOE member Jeff Marier. “As a parent of strings [students, it’s] painful, but the options are limited here.”

Board member Jim Goulet said the elimination of the art teacher position would lead to larger class sizes but would not eliminate a program entirely.

“I don’t think any of us want to cut any programs that are good for the kids,” Goulet said. “I don’t want all the art teachers to hate me, but I think given the choice between the two, I would want to keep the [third-grade] strings program because it’s not like you’re getting rid of art, you’re just redistributing the instruction.”

Balancing the budget

The version of the budget discussed March 15 also includes the elimination of 16 positions made possible through attrition — that is, not filling vacancies from retirements or resignations. Further cuts would lead to layoffs, administrators said.

The district does not yet know how much state aid it will receive; the New York State budget is due April 1.

Administrators are reluctant to make cuts in the transportation and facilities budgets.

“Any adjustment we make there is going to result in less aid being generated so we have to be careful. There’s this healthy balance in going back and forth with making further reductions in transportation,” he said, adding that the facilities budget includes spending for personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and other items related to COVID-19.

DeBarbieri said the district could allocate more from its reserves and fund balance to close the gap, but Baldwinsville is already planning to use $4.4 million of its savings toward the 2021-22 budget ($1.8 million from reserves and $2.6 million from fund balance).

Assistant Superintendent for Management Services Kimberly Vile said using more of the district’s savings now will make future budgets increasingly difficult to balance. School Business Official Tiffany Turner agreed.

“We’ve been able to bring the fund balance to 1.5% of the budget on the expense side and that’s pretty low,” Turner said. “We decided to only go with those areas that are actual budget cuts and not cut the fund balance back further if possible. A lot of the buildings and departments had already made reductions in their initial proposal and that’s why you’re not seeing more significant cuts or proposed reductions with this plan.”

Turner will discuss the 2021-22 budget at the next sessions of Coffee & Conversation. Sessions take place at noon and 6 p.m. Thursday, April 8, via Zoom. Visit bville.org/teacherpage.cfm?teacher=7613 to register.

The BOE is expected to vote on the budget April 12.

Grades 3-7 to return to school in April

In a statement March 16 on bville.org, DeBarbieri announced the district will be transitioning more students back to in-person instruction five days a week, but added that plan is to slowly transition only grades 3-7 students at this time.

“At this time, our leadership teams have determined that the feasibility of in-person instruction five days a week for all K-12 students is not possible,” DeBarbieri said. “Beginning after spring break, we plan to slowly transition Hive and Buzz cohort students in grades 3-7 back to five days a week … contingent on receiving the required physical barriers we need through Onondaga County. We expect to receive some of them on or about April 1.”

The start dates of each of the transitions to five-day in-person, subject to change are: grade 3 – April 6; grades 4 and 6 – April 12, and grades 5 and 7 – April 19.

On the website, DeBarbieri called it “highly likely” the district “will not transition students in grades 8-12 back to in-person instruction five days a week before the end of the school year” due to scheduling, transportation, distancing and capacity constraints.

“We have found that the costs (challenges, disruption to student schedules, etc.) outweigh the anticipated benefits,” DeBarbieri stated, adding the district feels “maintaining our hybrid schedule at grades 8-12 is most appropriate at this time.”

Jen Wing contributed to this report.