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Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central
Schools
February 28, 2012
BH-BL community invited to March 1
March 6 budget forum
 Rescheduled
due to snowstorm on March 1
Discussion
to begin on worksheet of proposed changes
BURNT HILLS: Burnt Hills-Ballston
Lake school district residents and staff are invited to the
second
of three community budget forums on Tuesday, March
6, in the O'Rourke
Middle School cafetorium, 173 Lakehill Road at 7:30
PM.
Anyone who cannot attend in person
is welcome to participate online via a
computer with high-speed internet access.
(See details below.)
Updated figures & proposals
from previous forum
The forum will provide updates on
some spending and revenue figures since
forum # 1 was held on February 9.
The district is looking to fill a
gap of approximately $2 million between preliminary
expense and revenue numbers for 2012-13. However,
superintendent Jim Schultz announced on February 9
that $1 million will be available for use next year
from the district's Tax Certiorari Reserve Fund,
potentially bringing the gap down to $1 million.
Schultz plans to review efforts
that are underway on all nine gap-filling strategies
that he introduced on Feb. 9, efforts that would
either decrease costs or increase revenue for
2012-13.
Specifically, he will be sharing a
worksheet of approximately 50 reductions and additions currently
under consideration in district programs and
spending for 2012-13. These potential changes will
be arranged in three tiers representing his
draft proposals to the Board of Education regarding what
to change first, second, and third to arrive at tax
levy increases ranging from 2.3 percent to 1.4
percent.
Forum attendees will have an
opportunity to discuss these proposed reductions and
additions in small groups and will be asked to share
their opinion of which changes the school board
should avoid making.
Tax levy cap update
NY school districts continue to
receive new details about how to calculate their
tax levy cap, which is a crucial new topic for
residents and staff members to understand this year
relative to the budget, says Schultz. As was true
with NY town and county budgets last fall, under new
state tax levy cap rules each school district must
calculate its own limits.
Current calculations for BH-BL are
that its "calculated tax levy limit" to pass a
2012-13 budget with a 50 percent majority would be a
levy increase of 2.36 percent.
Online
participation offered
Tuesday's budget forum will also
be broadcast live over the internet. This means
that interested persons can use a computer to see
and hear forum presenters and to type in their
comments and questions, as long as they have a
computer with speakers and high-speed internet
access.
No special software is
needed.
BH-BL has broadcast its budget forums
online for the past two years and found the process
works well. "The best way to share your thoughts and
concerns with the school board is still to come to
the forum in the middle school cafetorium in person," says
Schultz. "But online access has allowed more
people to participate in the budget process."
Still a work in progress
Schultz, other administrators, and
Board of Education members will continue work on the
budget throughout March, using input from the
community as well as updated expense numbers and
information from Albany as it becomes available.
A third forum on the, by then,
"nearly complete" budget is scheduled for March 21.
Work to develop the district budget
needs to be complete by the end of March/early
April. The
BH-BL budget development timeline calls for the
Board of Education to vote on a budget on April 3,
in advance of the state-wide public budget vote day
of May 15.
See also:
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