BCS District Adopts Budget With No Tax Levy Increase; School Board Candidates Named

by Thaddeus Flint
The School Board of the Berlin Central School District unanimously adopted a budget for the 2011-2012 school year at the budget workshop meeting held last Thursday night, April 14.
The final budget is now $17,374,400. This is $907,316 less than last year’s budget. There is no increase to the local tax levy. The District’s savings, known as the Fund Balance, will finance $473,800 of the budget.
Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Brian Howard, opened the meeting on a positive note. An additional $39,484 had been found in the current budget which could be easily removed. This position in special education was on an as-needed basis. As it was determined that the need no longer existed the position was eliminated. Howard also proposed further cost savings in supplies of $19,100, contractual areas for $17,753 and in substitutes, overtime, sport runs and field trips for $24,983. A total of $101,320 could now be cut from the budget proposed at the finish of the April 12 meeting. This would more than offset the $25,000 added to the budget to fund an outside study of the District. This study would audit all areas of the school’s finances, from transportation to administration, and would propose long term solutions to Berlin’s expected long term future problems.
Howard, as a point of reference, then compared Berlin’s budget to three other school districts in Rensselaer County similar in size and spending – Hoosick Falls, Hoosic Valley and Brittonkill. The School Boards of these three districts had already adopted their budgets.
• Berlin’s budget would now be $17,374,400, with a 0% tax levy; $473,800 of the fund balance would be used.
• Hoosick Fall’s budget is $19,959,228 with an increase in the tax levy of 2.5%; $1,756,234 of the fund balance would be used.
• Hoosic Valley’s budget is $19,949,232 with an increase in the tax levy of 2.88%; $1,452,000 of the fund balance would be used.
• Brittonkill’s budget is $20,443,609 with an increase in the tax levy of 2.0%; $685,868 of the fund balance would be used.
While not everyone on the Board felt that the budget before them was the perfect budget, they all more or less seemed to agree that this was the best that could be done. Certainly cuts at the state and federal levels had left many districts in a tight spot. Something had to be done, and this was it. The budget would now be $907,316 less than last year’s. Taxes would not go up. A motion was passed. A vote was taken. All were in favor. A budget was adopted.
Coach Kasson Sauer then got up and gave the Board a rallying speech. “It might be the coach in me,” he said, before pointing out the positive things each Board member had brought to the game. Sure, the game was already over. Coach Sauer’s speech might have seemed a little late to some. But this is a tournament that will likely go on forever. His address was truly a breath of fresh air in a room so often choked by the clouds of opposition.
“Mr. Sauer,” said Board Member Beverly Stewart, “can you come back from time to time to give us a pep talk?”
The budget now goes to the voters. Will the residents pass it? Do they have a choice? They do, and they don’t. They can pass it, or they can vote no. If the noes win the District has three choices:
1. Put the same budget up for a second vote. Also known as “The Beating of a Dead Horse.”
2. Put a revised budget up for a second vote. Back to the drawing Board. If that budget gets voted down the District is then forced to adopt a contingency budget.
3. Adopt a contingency budget instead. The contingency budget, which is not controlled by the Board or the Administration but by New York State law, could amount to almost a million dollars more than the adopted budget. By voting the adopted budget down a taxpayer would most certainly be voting their own taxes up. Way up.
School Board Candidates
The voters will have their say one way or the other on May 17. At the same time they will also have their say as to who will be their new representatives on the Berlin School Board. Well, they will, and they won’t.
Board Member Frank Zwack is up for re-election, but nobody seems to want to run against Zwack. Maybe Zwack is everyone’s natural choice. Zwack will stay on the Board for another three years no matter what a citizen votes.
Board Member Liz Miller has had enough. Her seat, also for three years, is up for grabs. The only one who seems to want to grab it is Jim Willis of Stephentown. He will run unopposed so it’s quite certain Willis has this one in the bag.
Voters in despair for democracy will have to be satisfied casting their ballots on an empty seat, the one vacated by Board Member and President John Green in November of 2010. This seat, a seat which only can be sat in for 408 days, will be campaigned for by Rachel Finney of Stephentown and Andrew Zlotnick of Petersburgh. More information on these candidates will appear in the Eastwick Press as the countdown to election day continues.