2010-2011 Budget

Residents to vote on $42.7 million budget

April 22, 2010

On Tuesday, May 18, Mohonasen voters will decide on a $42,720,170 spending plan for next year.

The budget proposal is $336,477 higher than the current year’s budget – or 0.8 percent. The tax levy increase would be 2.3 percent.

Also on May 18, voters will decide on a land purchase proposition and a bus proposition, and elect two candidates to the board of education.

View a line-by-line budget overview

Filling the gap while focusing on priorities

When developing the budget, district officials looked to close a $3.2 million budget gap left by increases in spending required to carry current programs into next year and a $1.9 million reduction in state aid. To do this, officials made more than $2.5 million in budget cuts – including teaching, administrative and support staff positions.

Without these significant cuts, Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Spring said the sharp decrease in revenue for next year would have been passed to the taxpayers.

“With difficult economic conditions come difficult decisions,” Spring said. “Because of this large cut in state aid we looked to see where we could trim expenses across the board and still keep our quality programs.”

We are making progress here at Mohonasen and have real momentum going when it comes to academic success. Our test scores and graduation rate continue to increase and it’s important that we don’t lose sight of our mission even as we experience challenging times,” she said.

The budget the board adopted on April 19 included 17.6 FTE (full-time equivalent) in staffing reductions and a freeze to supervisor/administrator salaries. Since that time, two of these positions are set to be restored because the Mohonasen Teachers’ Association agreed to give back two professional development days.

The 17.6 FTE staffing reductions include:

• 7 FTE in grades K-6
  This means that one section of grades kindergarten, first, second, fourth and sixth will be eliminated and two sections of third grade will be eliminated. In addition, 0.1 of physical education and 0.1 of art at Pinewood will be eliminated. As a result, class sizes at these grade levels will increase by approximately 2-4 students per class. Learn more about how these proposed cuts will affect class sizes (PDF).

• 3 FTE in the Secondary Subject Areas
  At this high school these reductions include: 0.2 business, 0.6 social studies, 0.3 social worker, 0.4 math and 0.4 English. As a result of these cuts there will be fewer sections of these classes and larger class sizes. Overall, class sizes will remain at approximately 20 to 30 students per section.
  
  At the middle school, these reductions include: 0.4 music and 0.5 physical education. These reductions will be covered by existing staff and class sizes should not increase by much at the middle school.

• 0.5 FTE in Special Education & 0.5 FTE in English as a Second Language (ESL)
  These reductions can be made because of a decrease in the number of special education and ESL students in the district.

• 2.1 FTE Administrator/Supervisor
  These reductions include reducing the assistant treasurer position by 0.5, reducing the CSE (Committee on Special Education) chair position by 0.5, eliminating the 0.6 academic administrator for social studies position (a 0.6 position), and reducing the central office clerical staff by 0.5.
  
  Please note: For the last year, Dan Lucca has been “volunteering” at Mohonasen as the academic administrator for social studies. Mr. Lucca is a retired former district administrator. Because he was paid only $100 for his services this year, some have asked if the elimination of his position can really be considered a “cut.” The answer to this question is yes. Even though the district did not pay a salary for this position this year it doesn’t mean a salary would not have been paid to someone in future years. At this point officials are proposing that the position be eliminated and the job responsibilities be taken on by other administrators. This is similar to what was done last year when the director of human resources and grant development position was eliminated.

• 4.5 Support Staff
  This includes the reduction of 3.5 teacher assistants and teacher aids and the elimination of one maintenance mechanic position.

Other cuts include:

• Athletics: No out-of-state trips, reduction in supplies, new contract with officials, reductions to supervision/chaperones, change in coaching staff

• Instructional: Limit on equipment, reduced staff development, reduced outside counseling consultant, reduced conference monies

• Transportation: Reduction in salaries due to elimination of mid-day runs, consolidation of services, greater efficiencies with FT drivers

• Unemployment: Paid from reserve account

• General Admin: Reductions to legal, BOCES neg. exp., records management, communications/web

• Operations & Maintenance: Reductions to equipment, testing and inspections, electric and natural gas, telephone salaries, maintenance contracts, repairs and supplies

• Central Services: Reduction to BOCES tech. position, BOCES Admin fee; Tax Cert. claims to be paid from reserve• Limit expense-driven aids to maximum amount of state aid for textbooks, software and hardware Gas/diesel prices have stabilized

• Increasing bidding to include bus repairs, etc.

• Reduction in ERS line due to establishment of reserve

• Health insurance savings due to co-pay changes

• Substitutes: Contain number of activities requiring release time/subs

• Potential Insurance Savings: Offer alternate options to retirees, work with CASHIC (health insurance consortium) to leverage premium cost

State aid figure yet to be finalized

At the time the board adopted the budget proposal, the state legislature and the Governor had not finalized the state budget.

Because the district was required to adopt a budget proposal by April 23, the board based its figures on the Governor’s proposed budget, which called for the $1.9 million cut to state aid.

Should the state aid numbers change in the coming weeks or months, district administrators will report on the situation to the community. However, under current law, once the budget is adopted by the board, it can’t be changed — even if there is a change in state aid.

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