To the Berlin School Board and all Berlin Taxpayers:
As a property taxpayer in the [school] district since 1995 and also incidentally as an educator (including a position at SUNY-Potsdam coordinating student teaching and instructing grades 2-8 in its Campus School), I am deeply concerned over the recent description in the Eastwick Press of the 2009-10 [BCS] budget, namely, the part about your assumptions which detail a 3% increase in teacher salaries and, most glaringly, a 10% increase in employee benefits. In the current economic climate I strongly object to your consideration of any increase in these items at this time. Having worked with teachers all my professional life, no one is more appreciative of their dedication and effectiveness. But in a climate where so many public and private workers are about to be asked to sacrifice in an economic climate that is unprecedented in most of our lifetimes, the increases you propose are just totally inappropriate.
Allow me to put forth some observations to support my assertion.
First, did you realize that, according to recent objective published surveys in the Albany Times-Union, of all school districts in Rensselaer County the Berlin District has the second highest median teacher salaries of any district? The only higher one is the city of Troy! And we are way higher than any of our sister Eastern Rensselaer County districts. This is based on the annual Times-Union “Report Card on the Schools” survey, published in May 21, 2006, and June 17, 2007. It was not published in 2008. I have these sections and would gladly mail them to anyone wanting a copy. So, it seems that our local teachers are not exactly suffering.
Second, living expenses are far cheaper in our area than in the more expensive areas of western Rensselaer County.
Third, the tax base of our Berlin area is not as rich and varied as that of many of the nearby districts, forcing the tax burden more on lower income people living here, many (probably most) of whom do not enjoy the nice level of retirement and health benefits afforded our Berlin School District employees.
Fourth, an argument for the high benefits and salaries of Berlin District employees is that it is harder to recruit and retain good employees in an area such as ours. Even if one would accept this shaky and unsubstantiated argument, our recession is about to produce a sea change in the employment picture statewide and nationwide, which will soon force many of these math, science, engineering and other employees out of work. In that climate it will be far easier to recruit these people into our district as teachers.
Finally, it is certain that the [NYS] Legislature will curtail state aid to our district in the coming years, reverting to a time-honored tradition of cutting state aid in economic hard times, which inevitably forces increases in the local property tax. If we are very, very lucky, this state aid will be flat, not decreased in the coming years. Thus, there will be a built-in momentum for our local property taxes to increase, even without increases in employee compensation, because of this loss of state aid which is so important to our economically poor rural district.
It is just incomprehensible to me why, in the face of these arguments, the School Board can come up with projections of a 3% salary and a 10% benefits raise for the 2009 ą 10 budget. It seems that every time your annual budget mailing comes out and the inevitable increases are explained with the reasoning that they are irrevocable by virtue of their either being a state mandate or a matter of contract with employees, you consequently throw up your hands and say that nothing can be done. Well, it appears that something indeed can be done, but it must be done at these preliminary discussions, not after the employee contracts are negotiated. I ask you and my local teacher friends (some of whom will no doubt be upset with me for writing this) to weigh the good of the whole community which has supported them so generously in the past.
Thank you for your consideration.
Barton McLean, Coon Brook Road, Petersburgh