School Board Discusses Budget Priorities

With community feedback regarding next year's school budget in hand, the Katonah Lewisboro school board looked at a menu of options for making budget cuts while attempting to preserve programs and services in the district.

The fiscal problems facing the district are severe enough so that several items are on the table for further study—including moving the sixth grade population to the elementary schools and closing the district's Shady Lane campus.

The board used the community budget forum report by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Roelle, and an enrollment projection report presented by Michael Jumper, assistant superintendent for business administration, as a starting point for their Oct. 28 conversation.

District reports on budget forums, enrollment

Three sessions were held during which 136 people participated by completing written surveys and engaging in small group discussions. The audiences—the district parent council, an invitation-only group and attendees of an open community forum—rated 17 statements on a four-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. In addition, they were asked if the voted for or against this year's budget; 24  voted "no."

Roelle presented some of the findings, honing in on survey responses where 60 percent of the combined responses from all three groups indicated they agreed or strongly agreed with a particular statement. Roelle cautioned against generalizing responses to the larger community given the selectivity of the groups, but said that certain themes emerged that the board may find useful.

For example, 93 percent of respondents did not want K-L's offerings in guidance, special education, art and music to be less than other districts (83 percent felt they should be consistent with other districts); 79 percent did not want a reduction in the number of high school electives and 74 percent disagreed with creating class sizes at the contractual maximum.

Over 80 percent of the combined responses agreed that the number of administrators in the district should be at or near the mid-point when compared to other districts in Westchester County. The small group discussions also revealed views from community members who said the number of administrators and the level of salaries could be further reduced.

On budget increases, there was a mixed response. Fifty-two percent of respondents indicated they would support a 0-1 percent increase, but at the same time, more than 60 percent said they did not want the board to present a budget that was a reduction from the current budget.

The full report is posted with this story.

Enrollment projections were presented by Jumper. Overall, district enrollment is projected to decrease by 97 students next year, based on a demographer's estimates using live births and housing trends.

Reductions across the board may allow the district to reduce up to four elementary teachers, but officials say they will have to carefully watch about five sections in order to determine staffing needs. For example, the current second grade section at Increase Miller is projected to decrease from 57 to 56; if it doesn't, a third section may need to be added. 

Board discussion on academic programs, services, administrators

Few would dispute the need for some combination of budget cuts and property tax increases to offset the anticipated $4 million increase in pension, health care costs and salary raises to the budget. But how much of a tax increase is acceptable—and how the board will get there—is still unclear.

On some issues, the board uniformly agreed to move forward. Board members backed the the majority of community responses which indicated a district move from Shady Lane to either Increase Miller or John Jay Middle School should be explored. Jumper estimated savings in the range of $75,000 on operations and energy costs, and up to $130,000 with some staff reductions enabled by the move.

On other issues, the board agreed philosophically but not in approach. Board President Mike Gordon said Mark Lipton would likely not want to grow K-3 class sizes, but might look at grades four and up.

Board member Eve Hundt said she considered K-3 sizes an untouchable program cost but offered perhaps the most realistic view. "We say we want to preserve what is in the classroom—but 80 percent of our budget is people. And if we cut people it affects our kids."

"Every year we have a gut-wrenching discussion about class size," said board member Peter Breslin. "I say, bring it on."

Board member Janet Harckham said she believed it was difficult to "look at this piecemeal– I need the overall budget picture, and I don't want to detract from our long range plan."

Roelle said that any discussions they were having would not "lock us in" and they would give the issue further study.

On  academic programs and services, the board agreed that they did not want to reduce staff in areas such as guidance, art, music and physical education to be at the mid-point with peer districts around the county.

"I am against reversion to the norm," said board member Warren Schloat. "That's what makes us special—if we can do it under 2 percent without staff reductions."

To make decisions on administrative staffing, Schloat also said he could benefit from more information on how administrators spend their time. Roelle said there may be a lack of understanding in the community about what they do, and he offered a discussion with administrators to take place at a future board of education meeting. "We would be happy to do this. We feel under attack about what we do," he said.

Gordon cautioned against aggressive cutting, noting that administrators have to look at district-wide issues like bullying, substance abuse and standards, that go beyond any individual teacher's responsibilities. Harckham echoed his statements, and added she thought the adminimstrative ranks were "too thin," and without department heads and staff developers, the district may be "short-shrifting" themselves.

Budget caps, other issues

A few ideas for savings in transportation were discussed but none deemed viable for follow up. Outsourcing the contract isn't currently possible given contractual obligations, and increasing the minimum mileage for including students on bus routes wouldn't result in significant savings given the nature of the rural community, said Jumper.

On instituting budget-to-budget caps for proposals, the board was divided. Breslin and Schloat were in favor of budget increases at two percent or less; while Harckham and Hundt said they did not want to be boxed in by a number. Hundt said that she'd be interested in what a rollover budget would look like.

Gordon summed up the board's position by noting the interest in seeing budgets at varying levels, but adding that he personally thought a cap would be "the easy and lazy way out."

During the meeting's public forum, some parents expressed concern about using the data from the community forums as a basis upon which to make decisions.

"The answers given are only as good as the questions asked," said Wendy Slater, who has children in the elementary, middle and high school. "If asked whether the sixth grade should move to the elementary schools if it results in savings, who would say no?"

Cross River resident Jill Ricca asked the board to not "water down" the accelerated math and science program, because chances to excel "are not really in the elementary school—it's the middle school where they get to do it," she said.

The next regular board of education meeting takes place on Thursday, Nov. 18. There will be a special meeting convened by the board to discuss the selection of a superintendent, on Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in the John Jay High School library.