Webutuck proposes budget with 2.67-percent tax levy increase

WEBUTUCK — Earlier this week the Webutuck Central School District Board of Education adopted a budget with nearly a 3.5-percent budget-to-budget decrease, resulting in an estimated property tax levy of 2.67 percent.

District Superintendent Lee Bordick presented the board with his budget proposal at the April 5 meeting. Webutuck has had to deal with a situation many school districts are finding themselves in this year, namely decreasing state aid and enrollments versus increasing district operating costs.

As Bordick pointed out, a rollover budget (running everything exactly the same as the year before) would still mean a 3.36-percent increase, and almost a 15-percent tax levy increase, which the board deemed unacceptable.

In addition to increasing costs, Webutuck had to address roughly $700,000 in state aid reductions, going by Gov. David Paterson’s executive budget, which amounts to about a 14-percent cut in aid.

“It’s a very significant nut to crack,� Bordick acknowledged.

The superintendent outlined staff reductions, many of which he  justified based on the district’s declining enrollment. Full-time equivalent (FTEs) reductions were proposed for English, the guidance office, mathematics and special education, among others. Staff cuts totalled $678,000.

Additional cuts were made across the board, including a 50-percent reduction in conferences and travel, a $250,000 cut in the equipment, materials and supplies line, transportation consolidation cuts totalling $175,000, BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) reductions saving more than $200,000, the closing of the Millerton Elementary School building ($40,000) and cutting field trip funding in half to $20,000.

The BOCES reductions are part of the district’s plan to offer the  services to regular and special education students on campus, utilizing the resources they already have.

“The current superintendent and special education chair have made recommendations that believe we can adequately deal with the programs needed on site, using the facilities we maintain and the staff we already have,� explained Board of Education president Dale Culver over the phone earlier this week.

The key to this year’s budget, both Bordick and the board stressed, was to keep away from making cuts that would directly affect the district’s core educational program. Because the budget reductions take advantage of the district’s decreasing enrollment, Bordick said Webutuck would still be able to run the affected programs at what he felt were reasonable class sizes ranging from below 20 to the mid-20s.

 Culver pointed out the inherent difficulties in trying to work out a budget without knowing what the state aid picture will actually look like.

“To run a business this size without the ability to pre-plan is crazy,� he said. “What we’re given shifts at the whim of Albany, and we’re left to make up the difference however we can.�

The bottom line, Bordick said, is the seriousness of the situation that the board had to address.

“This is my 24th year as superintendent, and I’ve never presented a budget with a negative increase before,� he said.

Webutuck officially adopted a proposed budget of $19.78 million, to be voted on by district taxpayers on May 18. Also on the ballot for voters will be the separate purchase of three district buses at the total maximum estimated cost of $80,000. Two seats on the Board of Education will also be decided.

A public hearing on the budget will be held at the May 10 school board meeting.

“I think this board and this administration have been very proactive relative to reducing infrastructure cost, trying to use as much as possible what we already have in place as far as facility and staff, and forgetting the premise of always doing it the way it’s always been done,� Culver said. “We have an obligation to the community to be as frugal as we can, while addressing program needs and striving for academic excellence. We’re trying to be proactive and forwardly plan for the realities of the economic situation we’re in. We’re striving to do the very best for this community, and to be quite frank, it isn’t easy.�

Culver said he and the Finance Committee chair have been looking to the district’s overall finance plan, and have had a three-year plan in their minds since last year to keep the total tax increase under 6 percent over that three-year period. Last year’s levy increase was about half a percent.

“We’ve seen this coming and we’re planned for it,â€� he continued. “I think some school districts sat there and thought state aid for schools was a sacred cow that  wouldn’t get touched. Well, this is a new economic climate, and there are no sacred cows.â€�