by Alex Brooks
At its meeting on Thursday, April 10, the Hoosick Falls School Board unanimously adopted a $22,487,085 budget for the next school year that maintains existing academic programs and co-curricular opportunities for students. The community will vote on the budget proposal on Tuesday, May 20.
[private]If approved by voters, the budget would increase overall spending 3.2 percent over the current year. The plan carries a tax levy increase of 1.43 percent, which is just below the maximum increase of 1.44 percent the District is allowed under the State’s property tax “cap” formula.
A State aid increase of $501,904, significantly higher than what the Governor proposed a few months ago, has made painful cuts to staff and programs unnecessary. What had been a 2.1% increase in State aid is now a 5.6% increase. But Superintendent Ken Facin pointed out that the District is still getting $519,794 less in State aid than it did in the 2008-09 school year.
The Gap Elimination Adjustment remains in place, and information handed out at the meeting showed that the GEA still subtracts more than a million dollars from the State aid promised to the Hoosick Falls District under the State funding formula.
Facin said the way the additional funding was distributed last week was complicated, not very transparent and very political.
Budget Details
The 2014-15 budget eliminates a Special Education position (upon retirement) and eliminates a half time ELA teacher and a half time Special Ed/Elementary teacher, at a total savings of about $186,500. It then adds back in a full time 7-12 ELA teacher at a cost of $77,100. Facin said this new ELA position is “essential” to deal with the challenges the school is facing in middle school ELA and to get these middle school students ready for high school level work, considering the Common Core’s emphasis on literacy skills.
The budget realizes some savings from what school officials call “breakage.” This refers to replacing a high salaried senior teacher with a younger teacher starting out lower on the salary scale. This kind of savings amounted to over $40,000 in the current budget. The District will also be saving money, approximately $75,000, by reducing its use of testing services from an outside vendor. Facin said this could be done more cost effectively “in-house.”
The District also added two small items to the budget for the upcoming year. One is $7,000 of summer curriculum work for the District’s new co-teaching model in Special Education and the other is $4,539 for a Summer Outdoor Education Program run by science teacher extraordinaire Howard Romack. Romack donates his time for the summer program, but transportation and other costs will be paid by this appropriation.
School Business Administrator Pam Hatfield said she has received firm figures about next year’s health insurance premiums, and the increases are smaller than they have been in recent years. The cost of health insurance premiums for teachers and staff will be going up, on average, 2.7% next year, which is an additional cost of $112,443. The amount of the health insurance increase is an important factor because the health insurance premiums constitute 20.4% of the District’s expense budget.
School Board Member David Sutton offered a “heartfelt thank you” to Facin and Hatfield for successfully negotiating another tricky budget season. He commended their “exceptional leadership” and professional presentation of the complicated budget details.
The budget is posted on the District web site at www.hoosickfallscsd.org. A Public Hearing on the budget is scheduled for Tuesday, May 13, at 6 pm. A newsletter describing budget highlights will be mailed to residents in early May. The vote on the budget will be held at the High School on Tuesday, May 20, from 9 am to 9 pm. Facin said he would be happy to make a presentation on the budget to any group in the District that requests it. If anyone would like to arrange such a presentation, please call the District Office.[/private]