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CCS holds the line on school spending plan

CORNWALL — Facing an almost $400,000 increase in the town’s Region One assessment for 2023-24, Cornwall’s Board of Finance got some relief with a a flat budget plan for Cornwall Consolidated School.

The finance board met online on March 16. CCS Principal Mary Kay Ravenola’s presentation showed that despite necessary increases in areas like insurance and salaries, CCS succeeded in its goal of flat spending and even managed to reduce the school’s budget by 0.1% for next year.

Savings came from a number of areas including the elimination of a building substitute, a reduction in fuel costs for their two buses, and a reduction in technology hardware costs through offering non-touch screen devices to middle schoolers.

“The young ones really need touch screen to navigate but the older ones don’t,” said Ravenola. “There will be a decrease of 25.94% for that.” (25.94% decrease for technology hardware represents a savings of $4,100)

Among the necessary increases were rising supplies costs, 9 of 15 certified teachers moving up a pay step, increased energy expenses, and a rise in insurance rates.

“Insurance is going to be an increase of 8.5%, although we might get lucky,” said Ravenola, adding that CCS is hopeful the insurance rate increase will come in below 8.5%.

Ravenola, who is set to retire at the end of the school year, aimed to set the district up for success during and after the transition to a new principal.

“I just want to make sure that when I leave, we have a few things taken care of before I exit,” said Ravenola.

Among these preparations was an increase of $3,165 for professional development workshops. Ravenola said her experience enabled her to lead professional development workshops herself but decided to allocate these funds in case the school needs to outsource such trainings next year.

Based on the current numbers, Finance Director Barbara Herbst said the “total budget is up 3.85%. If you did that, the mill rate would go up 4.24%.”

The Board of Finance will present and discuss the finalized budget during a special meeting on April 6 at 7 p.m. via Zoom.

Riley Klein

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