Dealing With Budget/COVID-19 Issues
By Michelle Van Horn
Two seats are up for school board elections, and one person has declared their candidacy. One change to run for the school board position is to simply declare that you’d like to run rather than requiring a petition this year. This mail-in election must have ballots in on or before June 9 at 5 pm, at which time Secretary to the Superintendent and District Clerk Kelly McGivern, and perhaps even Superintendent Whitcomb, will begin counting ballots. Since several districts will share the burden of printing ballots, New Lebanon is hoping to step in line early, with some 25 thousand ballots needing to be printed for voters to fill out and return.
Despite the desire to have a traditional graduation, it was announced at the Wednesday, May 6 meeting, it simply cannot happen this year for the class of 2020 seniors. Administrators have been in limbo about whether the District would be able to have the traditional ceremony until this past Friday when Governor Cuomo’s executive order to close schools for the remainder of the school year gave clarity. Online instruction will continue until June 18, with a graduation date set for June 20. The 180 days of student instruction requirement has been met, with online instruction provided throughout quarantine, as well as six spring break days dedicated to instruction. Plans are now in action to create an alternative senior graduation, with students and staff participation.
Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Josh Noble reported that the food delivery team has done an excellent job with deliveries every Tuesday and Thursday providing both breakfast and lunch to students in need. Deliveries made on Tuesdays provide food for Tuesday throughThursday, and the Thursday delivery provides for Friday through Monday, which covers all 7 days of the week. So far, they’ve reached 120 kids with 4,400 deliveries.
Also, the District’s partnership with the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern NY has been quite the eye-opening experience, with 1000 pounds of food already donated to families. For the past 6 weeks, there has been a phenomenal turnout, which provides food boxes to New Lebanon and Berlin school district members. The food bank typically starts at 11:15 am, but people begin lining up as early as 10 am, and food boxes are gone most every time. The Town of New Lebanon comes to support the cause, with Supervisor Tistrya Houghtling there passing out face masks and hand sanitizer. One community member’s family donated 150 half gallons of milk to the community. This has really put things in perspective for the administration in terms of the needs of families and students, and to the testament to the greatness of the community.
After combing through the budget, operational cuts were approved to reduce two full-time teacher positions. One grade level had only 21 students with two classrooms, which will be combined moving forward. “Two very small classes is a luxury in the district in this financial situation” said Superintendent Leslie Whitcomb. The District is expecting a possible reduction in state aid and is maintaining a cautious position to ensure meeting the current needs of instruction to students. To support the ever-needed increase to budget, New Lebanon’s school tax levy will increase just under the 1% mark this year. “We haven’t increased taxes in the last seven years” said Superintendent Leslie Whitcomb, “and even reduced taxes a few times since then.” Even with the tax increase, the District is still down from where taxes used to be five years ago. The challenge remains, even when everyone is strained, for schools to continue to meet student educational needs. Administrators also looked at teacher requests and found one to be in low standing, which accounted for the 2nd teacher position to be cut. With 75% of the budget allocated toward staffing since school is a ‘people business,’ this is where budget cuts are most effective in order to maintain an efficient system for overall student learning. On the flip side, a new psychology position is being added to the Walter B Howard elementary school. Looking at where the need has been in the community over time, and knowing what strain has been put on families during the last few months, as well as moving forward into uncertainty, drove the decision to place a child psychologist in the elementary school.
Poverty has been on the rise year after year, and at an all-time high now in New Lebanon, approaching 50% of students at or under poverty level. The mental health of a child, and feeling safe and secure directly affect the student’s ability to learn. “If you’re not feeling safe, and if you’re not feeling well, then learning is impossible,” said Whitcomb. To this end, budget allocations have been approved to take on the full-time psychology position.