School board hears feedback on 2020-21 budget at public hearing

WEBUTUCK — Moving ahead with the next step in the 2020-21 school budget process, the Webutuck Board of Education (BOE) held a virtual public hearing on the fiscal plan on Tuesday, May 26.

Both the public hearing and board meeting were held via Zoom due to the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing regulations. Once BOE President Judy Moran opened the hearing, Business Administrator Robert Farrier gave an overview of the 2020-21 budget. 

Farrier explained that the BOE’s directive for this year’s budget was to “support the academic program of our students while recognizing the impact on taxpayers.” 

Totaling $23,909,545, Farrier said the proposed budget for the 2020-21 school year included a year-to-year increase of 1.99%. With the rollover items the school district is contending with — such as healthcare costs, increased special education costs and other personnel costs — he said it stayed within that 1.99% by looking at savings and not adding any additional staff. 

Regarding additions to the budget, Farrier said there was one students with disabilities teacher, which the district was able to acquire due to the reduction of a family and consumer science teacher. At the end of the day, he said the number of teachers remained the same.

Farrier said the budget continues to support academic and extracurricular programs as well as college level courses, which will allow students to graduate with the possibility of one year of college credit. 

The budget also supports additional courses — including computer science, entrepreneurship and advanced biology — and offers a commitment to an instructional technology initiative that will allow students a one-to-one technology device.

Reviewing the calculation of the 2020-21 levy, Farrier took into account the total budget amount as well as the $6,207,036 reduction in state aid; the $202,000 reduction in other revenue; and the $1,900,000 reduction in the fund balance. There were no other additions or reductions. Overall, the total levy for 2020-21 came to $15,600,509 or 5.99%. Superintendent of Schools Raymond Castellani pointed out that while the 5.99% is higher than the district would like, the amount is under the state allowable tax cap of 6.32%. Farrier said the 5.99% would allow the district to keep all services the same.

With this proposed levy, the tax rate will be $11.56 per $1,000. Regarding the estimated tax increase for homeowners in the towns of North East, Millerton and Amenia, based on the 2020 tentative tax rolls, the tax increase will be $38 annually or $3.16 monthly for a home assessed at $100,000; $76 annually or $6.33 monthly for a home assessed at $200,000; and $114 annually or $9.50 monthly for a home assessed at $300,000. Farrier noted that this tax levy increase qualifies homeowners for the New York State Property Tax Relief Reimbursement. All qualified and eligible Basic and Enhanced STAR recipients will continue to receive exemptions.

In the event that the 2020-21 school district budget doesn’t pass by a 50% plus-1 simple majority vote, Farrier said the BOE would have the option of putting a second vote out that could be the same, less or more than what was presented in the first budget. The BOE could also decide to go to a contingency budget. If the second budget doesn’t pass, the BOE would automatically adopt a contingency budget, which means there would be a further reduction of $415,413 to be at a 0% tax levy increase. 

Among the items to be considered for reduction in the contingency budget, the BOE would have to consider cutting the school resource officer (SRO), a music teacher, an art teacher, a physical education teacher, a social studies teacher, an elementary teacher for grades kindergarten through sixth, field trips, junior varsity sports and instructional leads.

“Really, when you go to that component, you really have to look at all avenues and make sure that you are putting your dollars where you need to in terms of maximizing the educational opportunities you have serving that 0% increase,” Farrier said.

In addition to the approval of the 2020-21 school district budget, voters are being asked to vote in the election of three BOE members. For more information on this year’s BOE elections, find candidate profiles throughout this week’s Millerton News. 

Aware of the academic requirements for intermediate school students, BOE candidate Henry Pollinger asked how students will be able to satisfy their Family & Consumer Science requirement with the elimination of a Family & Consumer Science teacher. Castellani said the district will have an elementary school teacher teach one section of the Family & Consumer Science content area as well as other electives. 

Addressing a question about how the ballots will be counted this year, Farrier said there will be an election supervisor who will receive the ballots and the ballots will be opened within the public’s view.

Moran also expressed concern about the roughly 60 Amenia residents who receive their mail through P.O. Boxes, rather than at their physical address, which is where ballots have been mailed. She suggested any resident who has not received a ballot reach out to District Clerk Tracy Trotter immediately at 845-373-4100 or at tracy.trotter@webutuck.org. For more on the 2020 school district vote and BOE elections, see the this week’s front page.