School district plans public forums on proposed budget

Draft spending plan of $219.5 million currently being reviewed

School district officials have set two forums for residents to provide input on proposed changes to the proposed 2023-24 budget.

The sessions are scheduled for Wednesday, April 12, in the Meagher building on Wynkoop Lane and Monday, April 17, as an online session. Both forums are scheduled for 6 p.m.

Board members are reviewing a $219.52 million draft spending plan carrying an 8.07% increase of $16.4 million. The figure represents an increase of $8.92 million over a “rollover” draft budget two weeks ago.

Officials said increases affecting the spending plan include salary hikes of about $7.6 million, $3 million in transportation expenses, $2.1 million for BOCES services, $2 million for special education tuition paid to other districts, $1.3 million for health insurance, and $400,000 for retirement and Social Security costs. They added that some figures dealt with expenses that have traditionally been higher than estimated.

“I think we’re looking a little more realistically at what our costs are at BOCES than what we have in the past,” Superintendent Paul Padalino said. “While this looks like a huge jump, we ended up doing a lot of transfers at the end of the year … in the past to make sure we covered the actual cost.”

Estimates for revenue changes in the next budget include state aid at $9.22 million, interest at $1.5 million, and payment in lieu of taxes at $204,000. Officials are still reviewing the amount to be set as a property tax levy, which has a state limit of $114.19 million for a 3.23% increase of $3.57 million. A levy that exceeds that amount would require approval from 60% of voters instead of a simple majority.

At the school board’s Wednesday, March 22, meeting, members are expected to determine how much of the fund balance to put toward reducing the tax levy and whether to make program changes that would reduce or increase the $219.52 million spending plan.

“We don’t foresee program or staffing cuts in this budget,” Padalino said. “We’ll be improving in some cases the educational programming as well as maintaining all of our faculty and staff.”

Padalino said Thursday there are some areas of the budget that are still being developed.

“We’re out to bid for transportation, so we put out a request for proposals to transportation contractors,” he said. “I don’t want to spend $3 million more on transportation but I know the market has turned crazy, so I know that’s going to be in the ballpark.”

The request includes seeking an additional 15 buses in an effort to avoid repeating a shortage at the beginning of the current school year when some students were not included on routes for about a month after classes started.