The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake
Board of Education is very concerned about Governor
Cuomo's state budget proposals and the lack thus far
of any real mandate relief proposals for schools.
Board of Education members and
administrators have been lobbying state legislators
to help them understand how state proposals would impact us and how harmful
they could be.
BH-BL residents and staff are urged
to share their concerns with state leaders as well.
All the information you need to do
this is below, including a sample letter and contact
information for state leaders.
Create your own letter:
Read the Board's lobbying points below and
use them as a starting point to write your
own individual lobbying letter.
Legislators' addresses are also below.
Key Messages to NY
State Leaders from the BH-BL Board of Education
We understand that New
York is functionally bankrupt, and at Burnt
Hills-Ballston Lake, we are doing our share to
address the need for new thinking and new ways to
hold down costs:
We are working with our bargaining groups to
make concessions.
We are using significantly more of our
unreserved fund balance to carry the
district through these bad years.
We have cut 40 full-time equivalent staff
over the past two years and discovered many
new ways to reduce, combine, reconfigure,
re-prioritize or simply do without various
school services.
In return, we ask our state leaders
to do their share and ensure that New York school
districts can come out of this crisis with real
improvements in their long-term legal abilities to
hold down costs. New York needs bold, courageous
action to change the long-standing conditions that
have created its current fiscal problems.
We ask legislators to understand
that the Governor's triple assault of
proposed lower expense-driven aid, higher gap
adjustments, AND tax caps is crippling schools. If
tax caps become a reality, it is essential that
school district have more flexibility and
real mandate relief.
We ask that you:
1. Reform the Triborough
Amendment.
2. Support more -- not
fewer -- shared services as a way for school
districts to reduce costs and operate more
efficiently.
For instance:
Shared BOCES services save millions of
dollars. They should be encouraged, not
reduced. The governor's proposal to end
BOCES aid would cost our district alone
$290,000 in 2012-13.
Remove the current dis-incentive for shared
transportation services among neighboring
school districts.
3. Adjust the adjustment.
The governor's proposed Gap
Elimination Adjustment figures are simply too high
given all the other cuts in education aid in the
state 2011 budget.
