by David Flint
In a first draft of the 2009-10 budget, the New Lebanon School Board is looking at a 3.4% increase in the tax levy. Business Official Carrie Nyc-Chevrier presented the draft of the $12.8 million budget to the Board at their meeting on Wednesday, March 4, at the Walter B. Howard Elementary School. District Superintendent Karen McGraw noted that through good fiscal management the draft projected a 2% reduction in spending totaling over $259,000. The increase in the levy is accounted for by a reduction in State aid and other revenues, expected in this draft to be $282,104 or about 7%.
The budget includes a $180,000 appropriation from the fund balance, an amount that is included in the budget every year and sometimes is supplemented by an additional amount. There was some discussion about discontinuing this annual appropriation “designated against taxes” but Nyc-Chevrier suggested that if the Board decided to discontinue it, they should do it gradually over a period of years.
Staff cuts would be only in the Special Education program and, according to Superintendent McGraw, are based solely on student need. They include a part-time Speech teacher and three Teaching Assistants.
Nyc-Chevrier cautioned that there are still a lot of unknown factors that could change the budget picture. It is not known what if any will be the effect of the federal Stimulus package. Senator Schumer’s estimate, she said, is quite different from that of the Council of School Superintendents. It is also not known when the money might be forthcoming, what restrictions would be placed on it and how long a period it might cover.
Changing revenues or expenditures by $100,000 would result in reducing the levy increase to 2.2%. McGraw believed this might be done by funding part of planned bus purchases with an additional infusion from the fund balance. The Board could get the increase down to zero by changing revenues or expenditures by $288,000. Allocating some grant money to pay salaries might help to reduce the levy. Dropping the junior varsity sports teams would save additional money, not only in stipends but also in eliminating a second bus. Board Member Tim Smith said, however, that he hoped the Board could get close to a zero levy increase without cutting anything from sports. Board Member Kelly Magin supported that view saying that JV teams are important as feeder teams.
Nyc-Chevrier said she expected a clearer picture would emerge with the second draft. One good thing this year is that the Governor and Legislature are promising an on-time State budget, which will help immensely in planning school budgets. McGraw noted too that it was very helpful to have the Governor’s budget issued in December, enabling the administration to get started early on the school budget.
Vicki Count, Speech Pathologist at the Elementary School spoke up later in the meeting objecting to cutting the part time Speech teacher position at the Elementary School now filled by Heather Riccardi. She said the cut would have a significant negative impact on students’ academic performance. The speech team, she said, works not only on speech disorders such as stuttering but also deals with swallowing disorders and with vocabulary and grammar and syntax. The groundwork for reading and writing, she said, is based on oral language and oral language skills are a vital predictor for success. The speech team does a lot of their work in the kindergarten where literacy work is intensive and children need to be able to make the sounds. The team works also with autistic children with whom a big part of their deficit is not being able to communicate effectively. Board President Wood said the Board had received Count’s arguments in written form as well and they would take them into consideration.
School Bus Gets Second Life
Transportation Supervisor Ed Davis gave an update on the status of school buses. Instead of replacing one of the large school buses this year to the tune of $100,000, the Board had decided to have it converted to automatic transmission with a new radiator and drive shaft and put it back on the road. The bus has been sent out to the low bidder for that work and is expected to be back this week. Another large bus will be taken out of service and used as a spare. This will enable the purchase of two smaller vehicles, a wheel chair van and a 28-passenger bus. The District could forego purchasing a big bus in the 2010-11 budget, reduce the fleet by one and purchase three or four suburban vans.
CeramTek Building Considered For Bus Garage
Superintendent McGraw reported that she had met with the New Lebanon Town Board and had gone on a tour of the CeramTek building. The Town Board is interested in the front and upstairs area of the building as a possible replacement for the Town Hall offices. The Fire Department is interested in the right side of the building with its overhead doors as a space for fire trucks, EMT vehicles and meeting rooms. There is talk that the State Police might also be interested. McGraw said the rear portion of the building at the back on the left side with its four bays, formerly used as a stock room, could serve the School District as a bus garage with space also for an office, a drivers’ room and fireproof storage. Some retrofitting would be needed but probably no major overhaul. If it were to be used as a bus garage, McGraw said that the bus washing system the District is currently installing is portable and could be moved to the CeramTek building. She thought that the existing fuel tanks might also be movable. Environmental studies will have to be completed before anyone would enter into a purchase agreement.
McGraw said the Town appears to be moving forward quickly on this but if the School District were to join in a shared services project here she did not see it happening during the upcoming school year but possibly in the next. Although the District could get building aid for such a project, it is not clear who would be the purchaser or leaseholder. If the District just leased space, an advantage would be that they would not be responsible for the building or for the land.
Business Report
In her business report, Nyc-Chevrier said that the transition of the District Treasurer position was going smoothly from retiring Claudia Roberts to Mark Shook. Regarding buildings & grounds, the condition of the parking lot at the bus garage will be assessed by Clark Engineering; there is a drainage issue at the high school, the baseball field needs to be improved; the gym floor is due for resurfacing, and the swimming pool in the high school needs to be painted
Elementary School Report
Elementary School Principal Daniel Packard reported that several of his students were to participate that week in the All County Band.
Friday Family Fun Night had gone very well with some 200 people attending. The PTA provided a Bouncy-Bounce that even adults could use; there was a rock climbing wall, crab soccer games, a clown doing face painting and board games in the library.
The winner of the Spelling Bee in grades 4-8 was Trinity Copeland.
Tiger Gym was to be held on Thursday featuring the contest, “Are you smarter than a Principal?” A DARE group has been started up. There will be a “Battle of the Bulge” competition promoting health & wellness with the big “losers” donating their winnings to charity. Homework Club is up and running with ten to fifteen students, and it is expected that high school students in the National Honor Society will soon be helping out.
High School Report
High School Principal Leslie Whitcomb reported that seventh and eighth-graders will be participating in an arts in education experience funded by a grant from local artist, John Phillips. The students are exploring the concept of scale using Dr. Sam Bowser’s landscape photographs for inspiration. Chris Moran, an artist from the Capital Region Center for Arts in Education, will make five visits to guide the students. Bowser will also be visiting New Lebanon on April to display his work along with the students’ work. The students will write captions for their work, describing what they have attempted to do.
The High School is planning a Local History Day in which the Historical Society, the New Lebanon Library, the Fire Department and others will participate. There will be information and displays on cemeteries, the Roosevelts, the history of Lebanon Springs, the Tildens and much more.
Special Ed
Special Ed Committee Chairperson Tamara Thorpe-Odom reported that training had been completed in the District Transportation Department last week and it had been much appreciated by the drivers. Training will continue into the summer and again next fall.
Thorpe-Odom also explained training involving the use of a new worksheet to be used to map IEP’s (Individual Education Plans). Needs and goals of individual students are charted; it is determined that services match needs; concerns of parents are heard, and the plans adjusted. The charts will show if progress is being made. If not, goals can be readjusted. She said she has found the charts to be very useful for the Committee, for teachers and for building principals.
Response To Intervention
Packard, Whitcomb and Thorpe-Odom presented a report on “Response to Intervention,” a new approach for providing help to struggling students. Under the old model, known as the Discrepancy Model, the question asked was “How is the student deficient?” Under RTI, the question becomes, “How is our instruction deficient?” Staff now asks what it is about the school’s instruction methods that is not meeting the needs of a particular student.
The old approach provided for a Child Study Team for a student needing special help. Under RTI an Instructional Strategies Team is formed comprising the referring teacher, AIS teachers, aides, veteran teachers, the school psychologist, parents, the CSE Chair, Special Ed and reading teachers. They estimate the skills gap, discuss the likely causes and develop a science-based intervention strategy. They monitor progress frequently and consider a referral to Special Ed only if the student fails to respond to several well-implemented interventions. Thorpe-Odom said she is “taking a back seat” in all this because the idea is to challenge teachers to come up with an intervention strategy that works and avoid if possible any referral to Special Ed. Whitcomb said that in the secondary school the teams meet weekly and social and family aspects of the situation are taken into consideration as well as academic aspects.
Official Newspapers
Following the demise of The Independent, the Board passed a resolution establishing the Register Star and The Chatham Courier as official newspapers for the District. Board President Monique Wood said she would like to have The Eastwick Press also named as an official newspaper. Superintendent McGraw said that could be done, if the Board so wishes, at the Organizational meeting in July.
The Board set its next meeting for Wednesday, March 18, at 7 pm at the Walter B. Howard Elementary School.