Announcement re Preliminary Budget Feb. 2008

BURNT HILLS: Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district residents are invited to attend a community forum on next year’s school budget at 7:30 PM on Thursday, February 28, in the High School library, 88 Lakehill Road.

The forum will cover budget projections for 2008-09 and how the budget is tied to student success. It will also give attendees an opportunity to share their priorities with the school board.

Preliminary spending figures

The BH-BL Board of Education started its annual budget deliberations in January with a preliminary request budget of $52,892,719, which represents the first estimate of funds needed to carry existing programs forward one year. This figure is 5.3% higher than the current year’s budget of $50,243,630.

In addition, the Board has received 10 proposals from district administrators for different or expanded ways of delivering school services for a total of $427,991.

Board members have begun discussing both the preliminary request budget and new program proposals in an effort to arrive at the best balance for next year. “We’re hoping to get input from the community on Feb. 28 because there are always difficult choices to make. Input this early in the process is particularly helpful,” says Superintendent Jim Schultz.

Preliminary tax impact

Governor Spitzer’s January 31 state budget proposals contained several pieces of bad news for BH-BL. School board members have already begun efforts to convince state legislators that some of the Governor’s proposals would be harmful or unfair to schools.

Assistant Superintendent Jacqueline St. Onge estimates that under the Governor’s proposals an overall tax levy increase of 7.4% would be needed to balance the district’s preliminary request budget of $52.9 million. “The reality is, though, that we will see a number of changes in both our projected expenses and our state aid before the budget is complete,” St. Onge says.

Chief among their complaints about the Governor’s proposals is the school board’s belief that the state must stick to promises already made to schools and must not pass costs currently paid by other groups onto the schools. “We understand Gov. Spitzer’s desire to reduce state spending,” says Schultz, “but this shouldn’t be done on the backs of New York’s public schools.”

Promises made in the current year in state BOCES aid and Foundation aid formulas would be changed under the Governor’s proposals. To BH-BL this could mean a loss of as much as $200,000 in 2008-09 BOCES aid alone if Spitzer’s proposals are approved by the Legislature.

BH-BL spending changes

Staff compensation and benefits will be the area of greatest change in BH-BL spending next year. This is not surprising, Schultz says, since education is a people business and roughly three-quarters of the district’s budget goes for salaries and benefits each year. With no change in staffing levels, the total cost of salaries and benefits would increase by 5.3% and constitutes 76% of the increase in the preliminary budget.

School board members will be discussing possible staffing reductions, reconfigurations, and additions until early April as data on enrollment, special education needs, and class size continues to be updated.

Other areas of significant increase in 2008-09 are limited to BOCES services, utilities and fuel, says St. Onge. BOCES services are projected to rise by $125,000 or 4.7% of the total increase.

Natural gas, electricity and transportation fuel could increase by $331,000 and account for 12.5% of the overall increase. BH-BL purchases natural gas and electricity directly from the producer as part of a large consortium of school districts and businesses organized by the BOCES. “The utilities increase would have been much greater had we not been able to lock in good power rates until 2110 and good natural gas rates until 2012 through the consortium,” says St. Onge. She estimates that BH-BL may be paying 15-20% less than institutions that are not part of the consortium.

Next budget steps & meetings

Over the next few months, Board of Education members and administrators will be fine tuning their estimates, weighing various alternatives for reducing the budget, and lobbying legislators. Following the April 28 forum, the public is also invited to attend a Finance Committee meeting on March 6 at 7:00 pm in the high school to hear Schultz present his budget recommendations.

A second community budget forum has been scheduled for the end of March when the school budget should be nearly complete. That forum will be March 26 at 7:00 pm in the Ballston Town Hall.

A final Finance Committee meeting will be held on April 1. The Board of Education expects to adopt a budget on April 8, which will then go before district voters on May 20.

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