Board Approves 20-21 Budget With 0.98% Tax Levy Increase
by Alex Brooks
At its regular meeting on May 21, The Hoosick Falls School Board approved its budget for the upcoming school year. Spending is $23,305,428, which is exactly the same as last year. The tax levy will increase by 0.98%. The budget is mostly the same as the budget presented at last month’s meeting on April 23, with a couple of changes. The tax levy increase was added, which brings in about $95,000 more, and the fund balance applied to the budget was reduced by that much. Also, there were a couple more retirements which created a budget savings of about $22,000, which was used to restore some cuts in supplies budgets that had been in last month’s budget.
Overall, it is an austerity budget, primarily because State Aid for operating expenses will be 4.7% less than this year, a reduction of $542,196. Five positions will be eliminated. These include two retiring teachers who will not be replaced, one secretary who will not be replaced, the Community Information Officer and the Art Therapist position. It also eliminates the offsite PATH program, the equine therapy program and assistant coaching positions.
A public hearing on the budget was held via livestream at hoosickfallscsd.org on May 26, and the budget newsletter with detailed information about the budget went out on May 27.
The budget vote will be held by mail-in ballot. Absentee ballots have been mailed out – one to each household in the District. To request additional ballots, call the Board Clerk at 518-686-7012, ext. 1600. Ballots must be received by the District by 5 pm on Tuesday June 9 to be counted.
Also on the ballot are School Board members John Helft and Jackie Houghton, both of whom are running for re-election unopposed. There is a bus purchase proposition as usual. This authorizes the District to purchase two new buses at a cost of $178,000. 80% of this cost will be paid by State aid over a five year period, and the remaining 20% is paid by an existing bus reserve fund.
There are also propositions on the ballot to establish reserve funds for Capital Building and for Bus Purchases. John Helft emphasized that authorizing these reserve funds does not put any money into them. They will be funded initially by transferring funds from expiring reserve funds for these same purposes, in a process that Helft likened to “rolling over a CD.” The bus purchase reserve fund will need to be replenished at some point from the unreserved fund balance, but Business Manager Emily Sanders said the money currently in the bus reserve fund will last about five years.
Capital Project
Business Manager Emily Sanders said the boiler has been ordered that is to be installed this summer, and the asbestos abatement work for that project will begin in early June, slightly ahead of the original schedule. She said the administration is deep into the design work for Phase 2 of the project, which will be done in the summer of 2021. She said they had recently had a 3 hour meeting with the mechanical engineer and a 3 hour meeting with the architect, and they are getting into all the details of the planned installation.
Sanders also said custodial crews are coming back to work right after Memorial Day and they will be doing summer cleaning and painting classrooms.
At public comment time, Mary Beth Perry said she is very disappointed by the District’s lack of communication about how graduation is going to be handled. Since Superintendent Patrick Dailey was not in attendance at this meeting Business Manager Sanders mentioned that the District has come up with plans more than once that the State Education Department would not approve. She said it has been very frustrating when the District has repeatedly proposed graduation plans and SED has “shot them down.”
Perry said even if that is happening, the District should communicate with parents and the public about what is going on – let them know what the ideas are and what exactly about them SED considers too dangerous. She mentioned another district in the area which has been sending out weekly communications about graduation plans, and she feels Hoosick Falls could keep parents apprised of what’s happening at least that much. School Board President Rachel Boisvert said she understands Perry’s concern and the District will try to get some information out as soon as possible.
Resignations And Appointments
The Board accepted the resignation for retirement purposes of Cathy Conway, Secretary, effective July 1 of this year, with deep regret.
The Board appointed Julie Lynch as Claims Auditor from May 7, 2020 through June 30, 2020 to handle duties of Cathy Conway.
The Board also accepted the resignation of Account Clerk Melissa Eddy, and appointed Patricia Stefanovich to the position to replace her. It then appointed Melissa Eddy as account clerk assigned to payroll, replacing Vicki Dwyer.
The Board approved a motion to have the School buses pick up Pre-Kindergarten students coming to the UPK program on the same buses that pick up Elementary School students. These would be students 4 years old and older, as they are not allowed to carry 3 year olds on school buses.
The Board appointed as Election Clerks for the June 9, 2020 absentee ballot vote Deborah Kapron, Vicki Dwyer, Melissa Eddy, Gabrielle Pruso, Kathleen Patire, Emily Colegrove, Julie Lynch, Jane Whitman, and Nicole Martin.
The Board scheduled its annual organizational meeting for July 7 at 5:30 pm via live-stream.