by David Flint
The Berlin School Board adopted a budget for 2009-10 with a zero tax levy increase but not all members were happy with it. Interim Business Administrator Scott Hunter presented the fifth draft of the budget Tuesday evening. It was adopted on a 4-3 vote with Frank Zwack, Jeffrey Paine, Liz Miller and Julie Darling supporting it and Tom Morelli, Don French and Beverly Stewart voting no.
Federal stimulus money averted State aid cuts expected earlier and resulted in an increase of close to $240,000. Expenditures amount to $18,281,716, about $112,000 less than budgeted last year. About $475,000 is saved from the closing of Stephentown Elementary School. Additional staff cuts come from combining two second grade classes and from eliminating the Director of Transportation position. In addition, the salary budgeted for a new Superintendent of Schools was reduced from $143,000 to $115,000. Hunter said additional savings were found by combing through the budget and culling out a half million dollars of excess contingency funds. The amount to be appropriated from the fund balance is $143,641, a 74% decrease from the current budget.
Board Member Tom Morelli felt that taxpayers should see more of a reward for sacrificing the community school in Stephentown. Instead, despite a reduction in bond payments due to paying off the Cherry Plain building and the increase in State aid plus another $100,000 legislative item grant, they will still be asked to foot $8.3 million of the bill. He pointed to incremental increases for all staff while residents in the District face hard times, many on fixed incomes or in households where jobs have been lost. He objected to what he estimated to be a 17% increase in payments to Questar III BOCES. He urged another look at the budget with an effort made to reduce expenditures by another half million dollars. Failing to cut and reallocate this year, he said, would result in a 10% tax levy increase next year, or possibly 20% if the stimulus money disappears.
Don French was frustrated too with not having a better explanation for the BOCES increases or more information on non-mandated administrative salaries. He wanted to see more contact time with students and more cuts in areas not directly related to student instruction. He echoed Morelli’s complaint about not everyone making sacrifices.
Beverly Stewart said she thought that closing Stephentown, which she did not vote for, would at least result in more capital improvement and more money for instructional programs. Instead, a number of new instructional initiatives are still languishing on a to do list while other lower priority line items have been increased.
Liz Miller felt that major compromises had been made in this “bare bones” budget to result in a zero tax increase, a result that she said people in most other school districts would be delighted with. It was she who, after 10 pm, finally made the motion to adopt the budget as presented. Jeffrey Paine seconded the motion, saying that he trusted the expertise of the Superintendent and Business Administrator who both believed along with Miller that it was indeed a bare bones budget.
Julie Darling said she was impressed that the administration was able to present a zero increase budget, but she did think there should be more transparency in expenditures and revenues. She expressed concern about the Board’s apparent lack of oversight for grant monies set aside in special funds and not included in the budget.
Board President Zwack agreed that closing a part of the School District was a significant sacrifice for which one might reasonably expect greater savings. He noted improvements in Middle and High School student performance but said the District is still playing catch up and has a long way to go.
Interim Schools Superintendent Charlotte Gregory said it was a good budget in tight fiscal times. She disagreed that there was any big increase in State aid saying it was rather restoration of some of the aid cut earlier. She pointed out that the District is constrained by legal contracts from making some of the cutbacks suggested. She noted that there are a lot of new programs in the BOCES package with more students taking advantage of them. These are programs that the District could not afford to conduct in house. Moreover, she said, BOCES payments are aidable at 65% whereas in house programs receive only State attendance aid. The cuts in staffing, she said, are mostly from closing Stephentown and the others result from declining enrollment and would have little impact on services needed for children.
BOCES Election
The Board voted to re-elect three incumbents to three-year positions on the Questar III Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) that covers Rensselaer, Columbia and Greene counties. They are Erin Loffredo of Averill Park, Paul Puccio of Castleton and Edna Knabbe of Ghent. The votes were in each case 5-0-2 with Morelli and French abstaining.
The Board voted down the BOCES budget of $3,827,613. Zwack, Miller and Paine voted to approve it but were outnumbered by Morelli, French, Stewart and Darling who voted no. Morelli commented during discussion on the Berlin budget that BOCES should be asked in these hard times to do more with less.
Superintendent Search
Beverly Stewart announced that Vincent Coppola, Ed.D., a consultant with the Western New York Education Services Council, has been engaged to carry out a search for a new Superintendent. A contract will be drawn up and presented to the Board’s attorney for review.
Algebra And Geometry
High School Principal Dennis Healy and Math Coordinator Lauren Nichols presented a report on student progress in algebra and geometry. Third quarter diagnostic tests and Regents Prep tests were given to measure progress to date and present a prognosis for how students will perform on the Regents tests in June. Healy said that at the end of the first quarter none of the students in geometry were performing at grade level as measured by the diagnostic tests; now 47% are at or above grade level, another 30% require only some additional classroom help and 23% need more intensive academic intervention. Healy felt they were on the way to the goal of 90% passing the Regents exam. In Integrated Algebra, 73% are now at or above grade level or need only additional classroom help.
A Regents Prep test indicated that 59% of students in Algebra and 57% in Geometry are meeting standards. Although Don French saw it as a looming “catastrophe with almost half the class failing,” Nichols was optimistic that with effective intervention methods in place, a large proportion of those now performing below standard will be able to pass the Regents tests in June. Classroom intervention includes teachers stopping and re-teaching, using student peers to provide help, allotting tutorial time during lunch and class planning periods and careful data tracking. The improvements in instruction, she said, are numerous, in depth and continued. Performance is moving forward in every grade level, small, steady increases, the kind that have staying power, she said, unlike big leaps. “I’m proud of our administrators and teachers,” she said.
Superintendent Gregory said she sees real progress in both Middle School and High School and in ninth grade the numbers being held back have been considerably reduced. She commended Nichols as “a real professional” for her leadership and the excellent way she interacts with school principals.
Middle School Report
Middle School Principal Cathy Allain reported on Middle School progress. Teachers have benefitted greatly from working with educational consultants Jack Costello and Trish Ross. Students in the Homework Club have shown an 83% improvement in the amount of homework handed in and their grades have improved 70%. Teachers have expressed great satisfaction with the improved performance of Homework Club members. More students are making the Honor Roll – 39% were on the Honor Roll all three quarters this year.
Discipline is improving too. In contrast to 2007-08 when there were 564 incidents and 114 out of school suspensions, in 2008-09 incidents were down to 429 and there were only five out of school suspensions.
The in house Middle School summer school program is showing results. In ninth grade 23 of 24 who attended last summer are passing, as are 9 of 11 of the eighth-graders and all three seventh-graders who attended.
Election Concerns
Andrew Zlotnick of Petersburgh addressed the Board to express concern about keeping everything fair and transparent and preventing election irregularities that have occurred in the past such as politicking in the schools. He also wanted to know the policy and procedures regarding assignment of poll watchers and whether anyone has the right to observe the tallying of machine votes. In response, Beverly Stewart asked if there were a list of guidelines for elections. The school attorney, who was present, said he would respond to any questions Board Members had in this regard and provide a memo
Budget Hearing, Election And Next Meeting
The Board set a budget hearing for Tuesday, May 5, at 7 pm at the High School and their next regular meeting for Wednesday, May 20, at 7 pm, also at the High School. The vote on the budget and election of School Board members will be held at the Berlin Fire Hall on Tuesday, May 19, from noon to 9 pm.