HFCS Unveils First Draft of 2019-20 Budget
by Alex Brooks
Hoosick Falls Central Schools Business Administrator Emily Sanders presented a first draft of next year’s budget, which showed a total increase in spending of 0.4%, or $102,097. State aid is expected to be up by 4.6% next year, according to the Governor’s budget, which gives the District an additional $507,040 of revenue. The District plans to apply only about $1,130,000 of fund balance to offset the tax levy. Last year it used over $2 million of fund balance for that purpose. The budget document explains the decrease in fund balance available for offset by pointing to repair and maintenance items done in 2018-19 and increased special education costs.
The result at present is a budget showing an increase in the tax levy of about 4%, or $388,000, but no one expects it to remain that high. Some Board members said they wanted to keep the tax levy increase under 2%, and some said they hope to keep it to 1%, or even zero if possible.
There are still some unknowns. The District has not received word yet about how much its health insurance premiums will increase next year. An increase of 7% was written into the budget, but there is some hope that it may be less than that. Also, the legislature has not passed next year’s budget yet, and the deadline is not until April 1. State aid in the final budget is usually slightly higher than the Governor’s budget, so if there is additional state aid in the final budget it would give the District an opportunity to reduce the tax levy without cutting anything out of the budget.
When explaining changes in program and staffing between this year’s budget and next year’s budget the main theme was an influx of needier students over the course of this year. High School principal Pat Dailey said school counselor needs have risen dramatically this year, and there has been an influx of students who need 1 on 1 teaching and students who need out of district placements. Budget impacts from responding to these needs included hiring an AIS math teacher for the high school, two special needs bus monitors, a teaching assistant and teacher aide in September of 2018, hiring a new school counselor in October 2018, and adding a special education teacher last month, as well as an increase of $120,000 in the annual budget for out of district placements.
Offsetting these increases are the retirement of a kindergarten teacher and the Superintendent, both replaced with staff at lower salary. The new budget cuts $46,000 from the budget for supplies/materials and equipment, and almost $27,000 from the BOCES In-service training budget. Also, the vocational program at the CDC in Bennington has had less kids in it than anticipated. The program was originally planned to accommodate 22 students, and it has actually had about 7 kids per grade level enrolled in it, so the overall enrollment is about 7 students less than planned, and this allowed a decrease of about $104,000 in the budget for that program.
Overall, there were about $400,000 in budget increases for program changes, offset by about $264,000 in budget reductions, resulting in a net budget increase for program changes of about $136,000.
School Superintendent Ken Facin said over the last 10 years the District has had an average tax levy increase of 1.37%. He said the budget picture this year looks better at this point in the process than it has in most of the last ten years, and he seemed confident that the District can continue to keep its average at that figure or lower.
Confronting Drug & Alcohol Use
Facin said he is meeting this week with someone from the Addictions Care Center in Albany to discuss seeking a grant for a full-time drug and alcohol Counselor for the District. He said he will also be seeking grant funding for a full-time drug and alcohol eduction teacher in the elementary school. He said there is a lot of grant money out there for dealing with the opioid epidemic, and there is a lot of drug use in eastern Rensselaer County. “We need to get some of that money here to confront this problem,” said Facin. But he emphasized that these will be grant-funded positions, and will have no impact on the local taxpayers.
Facin, who had talked last month about renting part of the HAYC3 armory as a “downtown campus” for the school district, said he had toured the facility with a “safety officer” from BOCES, and he said there were “too many concerns” raised, and it could not be brought into compliance with State school standards, so the idea of holding school programs in the armory had to be dropped. However, he said he plans to tour the St. Mary’s Academy facility this week, and explore whether the Central School could rent all or part of that facility next year when St. Mary’s Academy closes. He said it is just preliminary discussion at this point, and he is not sure what the Diocese has in mind for that property, but he said it would be easier to turn that building into a school because it is a school. The programs he had in mind for that space are an expanded UPK program, and HFCS’ remedial program called “Restore U”.
Facin said he is pleased with the outreach efforts of the District and members of the community to inform people about the District’s Capital Project. With previous proposals, the District relied on newsletters, newspaper articles, and in-person presentations, and felt that the information did not reach enough people. This time the District has made a series of videos showing the need for the project and explaining how it will be financed and what the impact on the taxpayers will be. There are nine videos on the District’s web site, as well as a Q and A page and other photos and information about the project, and many of these have been disseminated through social media channels. Facin said the videos altogether have been viewed 10,000 times, and the most popular individual videos have been viewed from 2,500 times to 3,000 times. He urges all the residents to inform themselves about the project and to come out and vote on Wednesday March 13. Polls are open 9 am to 9 pm
The meeting began with a presentation by Bernie Bandman of Speak Sooner, a non-profit dedicated to improving communication between patients, their families, and health care providers. He described an event his organization is planning at the HFCS auditorium on Saturday April 13 at 6 pm entitled, “When the Doctor Becomes the Patient.” At the event, a movie will be shown called The Doctor, starring William Hurt, followed by a panel discussion with doctors and health professionals who have also been patients. the panel will include Dr. Marcus Martinez, Dr. Jim Carroll, Dr. Matt Pender, and Patty Ryan. A total kit for improving communication with medical professionals (book and DVD) will be given out free at the event, the cost of this underwritten by Jerome Construction of Bennington.
Business Administrator’s Report
Business Administrator Emily Sanders said the State Comptroller’s audit has begun, and it should be completed by the end of April. These comprehensive audits are done about once every five years.
Sanders also reported that 100% of the District’s buses passed inspection recently. She said these inspections are extremely rigorous and it is rare to find no problems in an entire fleet of 24 buses. She thanked Joe Steller and Harold Hoffman for their excellent work keeping the buses in top condition.
Sanders said repairs to both the little boiler and the big boiler of the building’s heating system have been completed, at a total cost of $14,000. John Helft asked rhetorically, “how much state aid did we get on that?” Sanders, of course, said, “nothing.” Helft’s point was that if we replaced a boiler as part of a capital project, the state pays 82.4% of the cost, but when the District repairs a boiler on an emergency basis, it has to pay 100% of the cost.