March 26, 2010 - The North Colonie Board of Education held its fifth Budget Committee meeting on Thursday, March 25, resuming staffing discussions from previous meetings, while also examining the district’s revenue budget and fund balance.

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, D. Joseph Corr, presented the Board with proposed instructional staffing cuts to Shaker High School. A reduction of 4.8 FTE (full-time equivalent) at the high school level was proposed. Click here to view the recommended reductions.

While some of these proposed cuts may have a slight impact on SHS students with regards to class size, Corr reiterated that the students’ program schedules should not be affected due to the solid elective offerings at SHS.

Continuing with the staffing discussion, Corr discussed certain non-instructional reductions, including the proposition to eliminate Elementary Building Assistants. Currently, there is a Building Assistant in six of the seven elementary schools in the district. This would result in a reduction of 6.0 FTE. In total, the proposed non-instructional reductions would total 9.0 FTE.

“Every reduction that is being discussed is one of great difficulty for all involved,” Corr stated.

The Administration and Board is forced to make these difficult decisions due in large part to a 12 percent reduction in state aid for 2010-11 under the Governor’s proposed budget that has also been recently approved by the Senate. While it would be ideal to retain all staff and programs in the district for 2010-11, that notion is simply not attainable under the restrictions of Governor’s proposed budget. If North Colonie were to close this gap through taxes alone, it would require an 11.34 percent increase in the tax rate. Due to the difficult economic times New York State is currently facing, a tax increase alone will not be the solution in addressing the shortfall, according to Assistant Superintedent for Business, Thomas Rybaltowski.

The Board also discussed the district’s revenue budget for 2010-11 which currently stands at $21,250,430. State Aid is the largest figure in the revenue budget, aside from the tax levy, and reflects the Governor’s proposed budget. While the NYS Assembly has proposed halving the education cuts under the Governor’s budget, nothing has been made official yet, though Rybaltowski addressed the possibility of receiving additional state aid.

“We are not expecting to receive any additional State Aid and are not planning our budget under that notion. However, should any additional State Aid come in for 2010-11, we will look to roll it into our fund balance for 2011-12, a year that is forecasted to be much worse.”

Fund balance is another term for the district’s savings account. Currently, North Colonie expects to end the fiscal year with a fund balance of about $14 million. Of this total, more than $7 million is included in various reserves. The district currently expects to appropriate $4.5 million of its total fund balance (reserved and unreserved) as revenue in the 2010-11 budget. This will leave less than the 4% limit allowed by state law in un-appropriated fund balance. The 4% limit would have totaled approximately $3.6 million, but the district will maintain significantly less than the legal limit in order to afford tax payers a much lower increase in its tax rate.

The district plans to use a portion of the fund balance to close the revenue gap in the 2010-11 budget and to help stabilize the tax levy imposed on district residents. District leaders strongly favor a conservative approach to using fund balance, because the state budgetary problems are expected to extend beyond the 2010-11 fiscal year.
 

“We must take the long-term view and ensure that we have adequate funds to carry us through these difficult years,” Rybaltowski said.