Webutuck still looking to trim draft budget

WEBUTUCK — The Board of Education continues to work its budget to have a voter-acceptable tax levy, in the face of significant cuts in state aid.

At board meetings on March 10, 15 and 22, Webutuck Central School District trustees and Superintendent Lee Bordick reported bleak numbers outlining the dire situation school districts will be facing in the years to come as well as the significant adjustments Webutuck might have to make in response.

Trustee Joe Matteo said the board’s goal is to have a lower gross figure for next year’s operating budget than this year, a difficult task considering the rising price of materials and supplies.

Potential areas of reduction administrators are looking at include, among others:

• Bus consolidation, which would require the entire district to move to a one-bell system

• Close the Millerton Elementary building and consolidate completely onto a central campus

• Eliminate any redundant BOCES services that could be offered at Webutuck

• Reduce supplies and materials lines

• Reduce conference funding

• Support staff reduction and teacher substitutes

Webutuck also reported some scary state budget numbers. Even after this year’s budget reduction plan, the state is looking at a $500 million deficit, but that deficit could be as high as $62 billion four years from now, both Matteo and Bordick reported. School aid, along with Medicare and social services, account for a large percentage of the state’s annual budget, meaning they’re “fiscal bull’s eyes� for funding cuts, Matteo said.

In the next year and continuing into the future, Webutuck has “to figure out how to stay even with our operating budget or even reduce it,� Matteo added.

“We’re losing $728,000 in state aid,� pointed out Board of Education President Dale Culver. “We have to try to make do with what we’ve got.�

Bordick gave presentations to the board at the March 15 and 22 meetings outlining where the administration was currently in the budget process. If this year’s budget was converted to 2010-11 dollars, the district would still be looking at more than a $1 million increase, from $20.48 million to $21.68 million, despite offering the exact same services.

But state aid is all but guaranteed to decrease drastically, and enrollment continues to decline. This year’s budget process is about finding ways to make up for state aid cuts in ways that least affect Webutuck’s educational core, he explained.

“There are ways to reduce expenses and areas that don’t impinge on the teaching and learning environment,� Bordick affirmed at the March 10 meeting. “We’re going to try to reduce the budget without affecting programs. I think we can deliver the curriculum in a much more efficient way.�

One thing the school won’t be doing during this year’s budget process is projecting major cuts, such as staff reductions, that don’t end up happening in the end.

“We’re not going to be scaring people with significant cuts,� he stressed. If the state’s adopted budget is so damaging to Webutuck’s state aid that those types of cuts are necessary, he said, the district will wait until it’s clear that those cuts will be needed before making that kind of an announcement.

The budget draft, as of the March 22 meeting, stands at $20.42 million. Bordick acknowledged that more cuts will need to be made to get to a tax levy increase of between 3 and 4 percent.

But it won’t be easy, he added, explaining that Webutuck would still need to find about $550,000 more in reductions to reach that, and the areas that could be cuts without affecting staff and administration are dwindling.

“As we start to narrow the focus we’ll have to be in position to make some more difficult decision,� he said.

The next board meeting is scheduled for April 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the high school library.