No Tax Increase In School Budget Proposal
By Emily Gabert
The New Lebanon Central School District presented its proposed budget of $12,480,879 for the 2019-2020 academic school year at its monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 9. If residents vote in support of this proposal, the budget will decrease by $38,215 from last year’s budget.
The public hearing on the budget was led by the District’s Business Administrator Kevin Fottrell at the Walter B. Howard Elementary School library. His presentation reviewed allocations to various areas of the budget and gave the public a chance to ask questions. Residents will vote on the proposed district spending plan and school board candidates on Thursday, May 21.
Most of the budget will go into programming which is $9,300,544 or 74.5 percent of the overall budget. Administration will be 10.6 percent, along with capital projects, which will be 14.9 percent of the budget. The tax levy amount will not change.
Sectors that will receive an increase in their budget are: special education, general support, operations and maintenance, co-curriculars and athletics. Fottrell said that they initially thought that special education would see decreases because of the number of students enrolled in the program, but as more students have moved into the District they’ve seen this enrollment increase and that it is expected to continue.
Departments that will see decreases are employee benefits, information technology, transportation, debt service and inter-fund transfers.
The New Lebanon Central School District will use its fund balance to make up for the overall increases in the budget if needed, otherwise that money will not be spent. It’s there just in case they need it for any of the bigger projects that they are working on but they are not anticipating that, Fottrell said.
Revenue for the upcoming school year is expected to be at $3,733,072 which is a $328,699 decrease from the 2018-2019 school year. This is determined by a mixture of local sources (grants or interests from savings), state and federal aid, the fund balance as well as property taxes.
The New York State Education Aid will increase by 3.6 percent for the upcoming school year. The foundation aid increased by 3.5 percent, while expense-based aids increased by 4 percent. Fottrell said that while the increase was good, it was not split equally among school districts.
“We knew this because we have one building project ending this June, and then the next one is going to start a year from now so the aid will be coming in a year from now as well,” Fottrell said. “So that’s why it’s a gap year with aid…”
“Even though the tax levy is zero, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your personal property taxes are going to stay at zero increase,” Fottrell said. “There are things that are beyond our control, specifically assessments. So if you do a lot of improvements on your house, they may assess your property higher.”
Equalization rates have not yet been set for this year and changes in the equalization rates could cause changes in property taxes. This is out of the school district’s control, he said.
Fottrell said that another reason why the District’s budget has been declining over the years is due to declining enrollment. The District has been keeping that in mind when putting together the budget and maintaining it.
The New Lebanon Central School District plans to to make a part time special education teacher full time. Support for professional development will continue, as will support for school athletics and extra-curricular activities. There are plans to purchase two new school buses as well.
The budget will also help keep class sizes small, continue summer academic programming, and fund field trips – along with helping to maintain facilities and equipment.