First Look At HFCS 2018-19 Budget
By Alex Brooks
At a meeting of the School Board on February 15, the Hoosick Falls Central School District presented a first draft of its budget for next year. Overall spending was $23,363,933, which is $85,000 less than the current year. The tax cap limit calculation this year yielded a negative number – the District must reduce its tax levy by 0.15% this year in order to stay under the tax cap limit. The Board said that its goal is to stay under the tax cap this year, so a slight reduction in the tax levy is anticipated. The budgeted amount for Capital Expenses is down by $773,317, less than half of what it was last year, because the District has been told by the State Comptroller’s office to pay building debt from the District’s Debt Service Fund rather than from the General Fund. The Capital expense in the General Fund is now just a transfer to the Debt Service Fund of state aid received for building aid and bus purchase aid. The result is that a line item that was $1,638,484 this year will be $865,167 next year. State aid for operating expense under the Governor’s budget is up by 2.8%, which brings $290,766 of new money. State aid to schools is usually increased from the Governor’s proposal to the final budget, so that number may go up. Salaries, which are half the budget, will go up just under 2%, which means $216,783 additional expense. Personnel benefits, which make up another 30% of the budget, are anticipated to rise just 0.5%.
Changes To Program & Staff
The new budget adds a full-time school counselor, an AIS social studies teacher, a teacher aide for support of a special needs student, and a typist for the High School Assistant Principal. These four positions add $182,553 to the budget. Four positions are also slated to be abolished, at a total savings of $154,314: A full-time Math teacher, A full-time Reading teacher, and two teacher aides who supported graduating students with special needs. Superintendent Facin said the District is able to abolish a math teacher and a reading teacher because less remedial help is needed now than was needed formerly. “When kids are successful, we can save money,” said Facin. The District is adding funding of $102,000 annually for the Equine Therapy Program, and is adding funding of $144,901 annually for 11 more students to attend vocational classes at CDC in Bennington.
The District was able to reduce the budget by $68,668 because the Business administrator and a custodial worker are retiring and being replaced with staff at lower salaries, and the District plans to reduce its Curriculum Development spending by $29,570 next year. All changes in the staff and program taken together result in a total increase in the budget of $181,251. The budget remains a fluid document. The business administrator said she did not yet have firm quotes for health insurance or liability insurance, and of course the State aid is subject to change when the State budget is passed by the legislature. But Facin said the District is in pretty good shape this year compared to what they have seen in the first rollout of the budget in prior years.