New Developments In The HFCS Budget

by Alex Brooks
The Hoosick Falls School Board held a budget workshop on Thursday, March 7. Although they are still a ways from a final budget, there were some new developments.
[private]A new secretarial position has been added since the last meeting. Hoosick Falls School Superintendent Ken Facin told the Board that this position will be dedicated to data management. There is a lot of data generated in the District, mainly about student performance, which has to be stored and organized and much of it has to be submitted to the State Education Department in very specific formats. This has become a big job as the emphasis on measuring learning by objective testing has increased. Patrick Dailey has been doing a lot of this, but Facin said Dailey is supposed to be working with the teachers rather than spending so much of his time handling data and generating reports for SED.
The Sequester Effect
School Business Manager Pam Hatfield said she has received word from the Federal government that the District will lose 15% of its Title 1 grant money because of the Federal spending cuts known as the “sequester.” This amounts to $31,800.
Special Education
Facin talked with the Board about some letters and messages they have received protesting the planned layoff of two special education teachers. He said what we all need to recognize is that there are 50 less special education students than there were in 07-08. “We can’t keep the same staff when we have a lot less students,” said Facin.
Sports
Brett Lamy gave a presentation on the sports program as part of the budget process. Lamy was proud to report, “We are 9 for 9 in scholar-athlete teams.” He said this is an important goal of the coaches, and they have been successful in conveying to their athletes the importance of academic success. He talked about the ways in which habits of discipline and hard work learned in sports programs carry over into academic pursuits. Lamy also said the sports teams are developing more community service projects as a way of giving back to the community that has been so supportive of them.
For this spring, the District will be adding Varsity and JV girls lacrosse and a boys lacrosse program which will be Varsity only. There were not enough players signed up to field a JV team.
Technology
David Breese gave a presentation on the technology department. He enumerated the technology resources of the District. There are 430 computers and 80 smart boards in the District. He said almost all the classrooms have smart boards now. His goals for the upcoming year are to “roll out the parent portal,” to upgrade to “a more robust connection to the internet” and to prepare for online testing programs which are going to be implemented over the next few years. The parent portal is a connection to the District’s computer network designed to keep parents informed.
Health Insurance
Business Manager Pam Hatfield reported to the Board on health insurance increases proposed for the upcoming year. She said Blue Cross Blue Shield premiums are going up by just 1.8%, but MVP will be going up by about 20%. Overall she is planning for a 7% hike in health insurance costs.
More Budget Cutting Needed
The budget as presented at this meeting showed a property tax levy increase of 5.37%, but the Board and administration vowed to get that significantly lower over the next few weeks.[/private]