School budgets: Trying to stay even

PINE PLAINS — Bracing itself for a tough 2010-11 school year, the Pine Plains Central School District is looking to keep its budgets as close to a zero-percent increase as possible.

As part of the ongoing budget process, non-personnel budgets for each building in the district, as well as interscholastic sports and operations and maintenance, were reviewed by staff with the Board of Education at its Feb. 17 meeting.

The district’s goal, Superintendent Linda Kaumeyer explained, is to produce a budget showing no increase for the upcoming year and that necessary changes be “budget neutral,� meaning that another area of the budget compensate for the increase or decrease in funds.

“There are some things to talk about, but not a whole lot,� explained Assistant Superintendent Michael Goldbeck, confirming that “any changes were either completely budget neutral or slight increases.�

All principals in the district were present to explain their budgets. The most drastic changes came from the elementary schools, where Seymour Smith Principal Richard Azoff and Cold Spring Principal Jay Glynn are facing a reconfigured elementary population in their buildings next year.

Under the reconfiguration, all students in kindergarten through grade two will be taught at Cold Spring, with grades three to five at Seymour Smith. Glynn explained that Cold Spring will have about the same number of students after the change, but the number of classrooms will increase.

Azoff said the biggest change was under the materials and supplies and textbooks lines. Where it has been more evenly split between the two schools in the past, next year will see the textbook line increasing at Seymour Smith with its older students and the materials and supplies line increasing for Cold Spring with its younger ones.

The Stissing Mountain Middle and High School budgets had more minor changes. At the high school, the rock-climbing wall is being budgeted for repairs, and $1,000 is being transferred from the athletic department budget to help offset those costs.

The athletic budget is looking at an increase of $3,000 (which includes funds transferred to the high school budget) but that number would have been much higher if not for the fiscal ingenuity of Athletic Director Mike Kohut, Goldbeck explained. Kohut, who was unable to attend the meeting, was able to save the district a significant amount of money, including $4,300 from the equipment line, while going through the materials and supplies lines and making sure there is equity between all the school’s sports teams, Goldbeck added. A large part of the increase in funding, he explained, comes from a state law requiring training and fingerprinting for volunteer coaches.

The operations and maintenance line had no major changes.

The next Board of Education meeting will be held March 3 at 7 p.m. in the Stissing Mountain High School library.