Hen Hud School Proposed Budget Calls for Staff Cuts

In order to meet the two percent tax cap passed by the New York State legislature last year, the may need to make staff cuts in order to cut $2.8 million from its rollover budget. The district presented its preliminary budget of $70,544,410, which would keep the district under the two percent tax cap, to the Board of Education at its Jan. 11 meeting.

The increase in the tax levy would be 1.67 percent, which equals about $40 million. Last year’s budget was about $69.8 million, which represented a 2.9 percent levy increase. The 2012-2013 proposed $70.5 million budget for 2012-2013 represents a total .95 percent increase in the budget.

The district will hold a series of budget meetings over the next four months and the public will vote on the final proposal on May 15. Last month, the public overwhelmingly a $25 million bond proposal that would have made improvements to school athletic and performing arts facilities as well as other improvements.

The district’s rollover budget, which is last year’s budget plus contractual and mandated increases (essentially “the 2011-2012 budget in 2012-2013 numbers,” according to district spokesman Rick McCormack), is $73,408,057. The district presented its plan to cut $2.8 million off that number and said that staff reductions could save $1.8 million. This would mark a fifth consecutive year of staff reductions. Since the 2008-09 school year, officials have reduced almost 69 positions for a total savings of $6,523,196.

As the Board of Education prepares to begin budget deliberations, a number of factors will contribute to the final budget that will be presented for a vote on May 15, 2012.  At this point, the district is negotiating with the teacher’s union to resolve their expired contract.  District officials have made it clear that all bargaining units will be expected to take a zero percent increase for the first year of any newly ratified contract.  The savings alone from the teacher’s union could top $885,000.

Other school unions took zero percent when they signed their new contracts last year, McCormack said.  The teacher’s union four-year contract expired in June 2011, and the district declared and A mediator is currently handling the negotiations.

 “We have a number of challenges in the coming months as we prepare to present a budget to our community,” remarked Dr. Daniel McCann, Superintendent of Schools.  “With those challenges though, we have opportunities to continue to make meaningful changes to collective bargaining agreements that will help place our district on a more secure financial footing in the future.”

“Over the last 5½ years every effort has been made to keep budget increases at a sustainable level,” said McCann. “We have consistently presented budgets with reasonable increases that balanced our student’s needs with our community’s ability to support our budgets. We intend to come in at the tax cap, while still maintaining as many of those opportunities and programs that set us apart from other districts in the county and region,” concluded McCann.

 As the budget process moves forward, officials will closely examine existing levels of services and extra-curricular activities, continue to focus on identifying areas to achieve greater efficiency, continue cost-effective maintenance of facilities and most significantly, keep any reductions as far from the core academic program as possible.

 “We have listened carefully to the community’s concerns about tax increases and the financial burden that we all face as we developed our spending plan for the 2012-13 school year. While our task is not easy, we will continue to explore ways to reduce costs, while maintaining programs and sustaining our rigorous academic standards,” concluded McCann.

As part of the district’s budget development process, it will soon deploy a phone, internet and paper based survey to assess the community’s perspective on future budget and capital expenditures.  “This will be an opportunity for the community to share their thoughts on our recent bond proposal as well as issues we are facing in developing a spending plan for next year,” said McCann.

The Jan. 11 meeting was the first in a series of meetings where the 2012-13 budget was the primary topic.  On January 25^th, district officials will present the Administrative Budget. February 8^th, 29^th, & March 14^th will be dedicated to Program Budget/District wide staffing review and on March 28^th, officials will present the Capital Budget. All meetings take place in the High School Library beginning at 7:30 PM.