by Alex Brooks
Hoosick Falls Central School’s Business Administrator Pam Hatfield presented a revised budget at the Board’s March 17 meeting showing a proposed tax levy increase of 0.9%. This is in spite of a projected $635,000 decrease in State Aid for Operating Expenses and a 10% ($357,884) increase in health insurance costs, which between the two of them put the District a million dollars worse off than they were at this time a year ago.
To get to the tax levy figure, the District closed two Tax Certiorari Reserve Accounts that were no longer needed, which brought $478,733 back into the general fund, accepted two teacher retirements and four teaching assistant retirements, which reduced the District’s annual costs by $225,627, reduced the contract transportation budget by reconfiguring the transportation system so that all transportation needs could be handled by the District’s own buses and drivers, saving $106,500 annually, reduced high school and elementary budgets for supplies and equipment by $145,757 and laid off five Teacher Assistants, one Teacher Aide and one School Monitor, bringing an annual savings to the District of $145,099.
When the Board voted to abolish these last seven positions, District Superintendent Ken Facin said, “This is not an easy thing to do.” He said that because of the extraordinary economic conditions we are experiencing, he feels the District cannot increase the tax burden on property owners this year. In addition, he said enrollments are decreasing and if the District doesn’t reduce staff when they have less students, they are going to run into budget trouble eventually. Classes that have typically had 100 to 105 students in a grade are now, in the youngest grades, 75 to 78 students per grade.
Facin was asked if cuts in State Aid are restored, would the District rescind its decision to abolish the seven positions? He said no, the school’s program has been reconfigured to work without those positions and he does not expect to backtrack on this decision.
Facin also said that although the budget now shows an increase in the tax levy of about 1%, he intends to get it down to zero by the April 7 meeting when the Budget will be adopted. This means trimming an additional $78,000 from the budget.
Capital Project Budget
The Capital Project, originally budgeted and approved for $8.3 million, is projected to come in $920,000 under budget, primarily because the roofing project was less costly than anticipated. Facin said there were some “alternates” in the original plan which were to be done only if there was enough money available when the main projects were completed. He talked to the Board about some of these projects, which need to be planned and scheduled soon if they are to be done during this summer’s building season. They include work to be done on the High School and Elementary entryways, including replacing sidewalks and improving drainage all along the front of the building, making the outdoor sports fields and bleachers accessible to those with disabilities, replacing ceiling tiles, some of which have water damage, with insulated tiles, and some smaller projects, including a new screen for the theatre. Altogether the projects he mentioned were estimated in the neighborhood of $500,000, so even with these additions the Capital Project is still expected to come in well under budget.
Burnt Bagel Reveals Fire Alarm Flaw
Facin reported that the fire alarm went off recently because of smoke from a burnt bagel. When the fire alarm goes off without prior planning, the District is required to vacate the building, so everybody had to go outside. Facin said that because they have practiced, they were able to vacate the building in about four minutes but once outside the administrators realized something was wrong when no fire trucks showed up until 18 minutes later. It turned out that there was some kind of glitch in the system that conveys an alarm from the building’s fire alarm system to the local fire departments. The District has a service they contract with to monitor the alarm, and when it goes off, they call Rensselaer County Dispatch, who alert the local fire departments. After this incident, the school administrators and local fire department personnel checked into what went wrong, and the system was corrected.
Agreement With
Village Police
The Board approved an agreement between the District and the Village of Hoosick Falls Police to have police services available to the school when needed. These services are paid for by a federal Title IV grant under the Safe & Drug-Free Schools Act. Facin called it a win-win situation as it provides additional revenue to the Village Police and provides routine police services to the school for football games and other events, as well as faster response times in the event that police are needed on an emergency basis. The agreement says “not to exceed $4,000,” but Facin said, “We won’t even come close to using $4,000.”