Tentative school budget keeps taxes stable

Schenectady’s $274.5M spending plan relies on $205M in state aid, about $6.7M in fund balance

SCHENECTADY — The preliminary $274.5 million Schenectady school district budget calls for keeping taxes stable and maintaining the current roster of program offerings, faculty and staff.

But that upbeat assessment, the district’s Chief Financial Officer Terry Gillooley told board members last week, comes with at least one caveat — as long as “the level of our foundation aid and everything else” stays the same as early projections.

That foundation aid has increased from about $17.3 million during the current school year to roughly $20.4 million for the upcoming academic year, he said during a presentation on the 2024-25 budget.

All told, this pre-kindergarten district of 9,135 students is in line to receive about $205 million in total state aid, a number that will likely go up, with a $59.2 million tax levy, the amount to be raised by taxes, Gillooley said. The tentative spending plan draws on roughly $6.7 million from the fund balance, a figure he wants to see go down.

“Being fiscally responsible, we obviously can’t use $6 million of the fund balance every year, but we do have that capability now, and like I said, we have programs that are able to be funded, but we also have all those additional positions that we’re able to fund based off of our savings from what we’re doing,” Gillooley said.

The district employs 778 fulltime teachers and 44 paraprofessionals with about 160 vacant positions, according to a slide shown by Gillooley.

Superintendent Anibal Soler Jr. said during the March 6 Board of Education meeting that the district paid close attention and was deliberate in how it earmarked American Rescue Plan Act funding, knowing it would eventually run out. Carlos Cotto Jr., assistant superintendent of innovation, equity and engagement, has been named the new school superintendent, effective May 1.

“We were real intentional in not putting the (full time employees) in the ARPA because hat money will go away in October,” said Soler, who will be leaving in the spring for the Yonkers school system. “So as that money goes away, we won’t have to move bodies to cover that cost, we spent it on utilities, programming.”

The school district is getting $41.3 million in ARPA money to use over the next four years.

The board is also in the early

stages of a $300 million Schenectady Revitalization Plan to modernize some of the older school buildings and create a leadership academy, and a family community engagement center, which recently opened to the public.

Board member Vivian Parsons said last week she wasn’t looking to raise school taxes but had concerns about whether the district would be able to keep up with its bills from the new initiatives it has recently undertaken.

“Are we able to maintain what it is we’re currently trying to accomplish several years down the road without creating a bubble that can burst?” she asked.

Soler responded, “We have been intentional on how we staff

the ratios we use because we’re trying to predict that sustainability and we do have very healthy reserves ... to help get us through what may come down the road.”

He said about 85 percent of the budget is for salaries and benefits of full-time employees.

“The majority of our budget, regardless of initiatives or programs, whether it’s restructuring the high school, big picture learning, is people and no matter what we decide to do, programming is attached to people,” Soler said.

Another budget review session is scheduled for April 10. The final budget presentation will be April 24 and board members will vote on adopting the spending plan.

A public hearing is set for May 8/ Voters go to the polls May 21 to decide on the budget and school board seats.