K-L Superintendent Seeks 1.69% Increase in Next Year's Budget

Katonah Lewisboro Superintendent Robert Roelle has proposed his last budget as  head of the district—a $111 million spending plan for the 2011-12 fiscal year which calls for a budget-to-budget increase of 1.69 percent from last year.

Most of the new spending, which totals $1,851,592, can be attributed to two major cost increases: employee retirement costs and health care costs, said district officials when the budget was released Monday morning.

New York State mandated teacher and employee retirement contributions are increasing by $2,045,506 and health care costs are rising by $1,739,880, according to the budget document.

Almost $1 million in salary reductions were achieved through teacher retirement incentives—ten teachers will retire at the end of the 2010-11 school year—and by the elimination of positions directly related to a projected enrollment decrease of 97 students district-wide.

Roelle’s proposed budget is lower than a contingency budget, set by the state at 1.92 percent this year.

Staffing and instruction

Instructional programs are intact and elementary class sizes are proposed to have 22 or fewer students per class.

 “We made major cuts over the last two years and this is less dramatic than the previous two years,” said Michael Jumper, assistant superintendent for business, who at the end of February, serving as interim superintendent through the end of this year.

Teaching staff for general education and special areas has been maintained. Minor reductions are directly related to a projected enrollment decrease of about 1 percent next year, from 3,756 to 3,668 students district-wide. Since 2005, the district’s enrollment has decreased by 438 students, including next year’s predicted drop.

The special education department loses six teachers. The budget impact is minimal, however, as five of those positions were supported by a grant that has ended.

At the administrative level, a middle school assistant principal position will be eliminated and replaced by a teacher on special assignment, and the school business administrator position will end in Jan. 2012.

Other staff reductions include a school monitor each at the high school and middle school, reduced monitor hours at the elementary school, a clerical and custodial position eliminated as a result of the , plus two two additional operations and maintenance positions.

As for new positions, after eliminating five curriculum coaches in the last two years, the superintendent recommends restoring three in the areas of math, science and instructional technology, each with a stipend of $6,869. A district-wide “Response to Intervention” position has been added to provide students with academic supports and prepare the district in implementing state-mandated RTI programs by July 2012.

Tax levy and tax rates

Overall revenues determine the tax levy, and the district will experience some losses in 2011-12, said Jumper.

Total projected revenues are $11,115,993, including about $6 million in state aid, if Cuomo’s budget is adopted, down $324,114 from last year.  Though $376,285 in federal stimulus funds are available this year, interest income dropped by about $60,000.

To offset revenue reductions, the administration is recommending just over $1 million in undesignated fund balance and about $500,000 in reserve funds to offset the tax levy, projected to be $100,017,007.

Tax rates are preliminary, cautioned officials, as they presented the following estimates, based on 2011 equalization rates: Bedford will increase by 1.95 percent; Lewisboro by 5.68 percent; North Salem increases by 7.58 percent and Pound Ridge would see an increase of 8.12 percent under the proposed budget.

“We have no control over the equalization rates. In Lewisboro, for example, assessed values went down so we would have to raise the rate to get the same amount of money," said Jumper.

Next steps

The district will present the budget to the school board on Thursday, Feb. 10, followed by a discussion on the proposed changes in the special education department.

Several meetings will be held to discuss the plan in detail prior to the board of education adopting a budget, said Roelle, including a half-day session to be held on Saturday, Mar. 5 from 8:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.

A copy of the budget has been posted with this story. The budget vote takes place on May 17.