By Alex Brooks
The Hoosick Falls School Board approved its 2018-19 budget at its regular meeting on April 19. The spending plan is for $23,277,506, which is $177,473 less than the current year’s budget, a reduction of 0.7%.
The tax levy is also lower than this year’s. It will be $14,280 less, a reduction of 0.15%.
State aid to the District for operating expenses will be $10,908,459, providing just about 47% of the District’s revenue.
This aid increased by about $156,000 in the final State budget passed April 1 over the figures from the Governor’s proposal used in the first two iterations of the school’s budget, providing a total increase this year of $456,636.
The fund balance to be applied to the budget to reduce the tax levy will be $2,011,020, which is $190,644 more than the previous year.
The first two versions of the budget presented in February and March had shown a reduction in the amount of fund balance applied, but that turned out not to be possible if the District was to achieve the 0.15% reduction in the tax levy that they needed to stay under the state tax cap.
Changes in staffing and program did not have a large effect on the budget. Two full time positions in reading and math were abolished and a school counselor and a writing teacher were added.
The District added an LPN to help staff the nursing station at an annual cost of $33,000 and a school resource officer at an annual cost of $80,000.
Several retiring workers were replaced with staff at a lower salary and reductions were made in curriculum development, supplies and equipment, and conferences and travel.
Overall, changes in staff and program added $140,000 to the budget (about half of 1%).
The full budget document is available on the District’s web site at HoosickFallsCSD.org.
A Public Hearing on the budget will be held on Tuesday, May 8 at 6 pm at the school, and the vote on the budget will be held on Tuesday, May 15 from 9 am to 9 pm.