Letter To The Editor – From The Superintendent

Letter to Editor:
I read the letter to the Editor in the February 12 issue from Heinz Noeding of Petersburgh regarding his concerns with the finances of the Berlin Central School District. I want to thank Mr. Noeding for spending some time reviewing the last 10 year audits of the school district in an effort to understand the funding and expenditures of school districts. His concern with the expense of the school district and the economic climate has also been an issue of many hours of board of education discussion about reducing expenditures to contain costs for the last several years. However, some important information was left out of his statistics. The total school budget for 2009-10 went down, not up due to the $560,000 savings to the taxpayers by closing Stephentown Elementary School building. That savings coupled with the federal government stimulus funds of some $535,555 provided over a million dollars of revenue and savings to help the Berlin Central School District obtain a zero tax levy containment of costs in funding this 2009-10 school year.
Nor did Mr. Noeding mention the cost containment of the 2008-09 school budget where the tax levy increased 1.23% overall with a helpful state aid increase of 4.85%. This was the first year and now only year of the new Foundation aid for schools.
The 2007-08 school budget showed a decrease of .38 in overall expenditures and a loss of state aid at $197,270. The tax levy increase for that year was 1.39%. The district has a record of frugal expenditures while still looking to maintain a quality educational effort. In fact over the last several years, due to restrictive spending procedures, the district has been able to develop a full-time pre-k program, pilot some Project Based Learning programs, purchase more instructional technology and provide staff development programs. Science lab equipment was repaired and updated, a Middle School Summer School program was developed and a Distance Learning program with some 50+ courses will be ready for the 2010 fall educational program at the High School. I think it would difficult to find school districts in the area which can match these records.
I welcome the scrutiny and review by the taxpayers as we work to develop a school budget of expenditures crippled by a $1.4 million dollar loss of state revenue. The state which used some of Berlin’s identified Stimulus Funds now offers a $501,886 remainder of federal stimulus funds to close the state’s withdrawal of $1.4 million in state aid. That leaves a $976,333 gap. The district has declining enrollment and decreasing revenues. The community is experiencing economic difficulties. Like other schools in the state and locally, this will cause the administration and Board of Education to take some serious steps to close the local gap.
Thank you again, Mr. Noeding, for helping the district to keep the public interest as a focal point.
Yours truly,
Charlotte Gregory
BCSD Interim Superintendent