Administrators mean to stay within 2% cap and look for $1.8 million in cuts
Monday, December 12, 2011
by Christine Yeres
Last Wednesday’s Knowledge Café began with a primer on the school budget process and the 2% tax cap by Assistant Superintendent for Business John Chow, then shifted to a brainstorming session among teachers, administrators and residents on how to cut expenses and raise revenues. [At the end of this piece, add your comments to those of participants.]
Chow began by reminding his audience that education is a labor-intensive business in which fully 75% of the budget goes to salaries and benefits. As for the remainder of the budget, he laid out a time-line in which he and Superintendent Lyn McKay are now reviewing budgets worked up by each department and building in the CCSD. In February, the board’s work sessions on the various budget areas will begin.
Steps in the Budget Process
February 28—Superintendent’s Budget Proposal, Budget Discussion on Programs and Staffing
March 6—Budget Discussion on Curriculum and Athletics
March 13—Budget Discussion on Special Ed and Technology
March 20—Budget Discussion on Operations and Maintenance, Non-Instructional, Fund Balance
March 27—Budget Discussion on Revenue, Tax Rages, Contingency Budget
April 10—Adopt Budget
April 24—BOCES Budget, Election
The budget process ends in the adoption of a proposed budget on April 10, a public hearing on May 1, and a May 15, 2012 vote.
How the newly enacted 2% tax cap is calculated
The total school budget for the current school year, 2011-2012, is $111,448,488. After subtracting the $8.25 million of revenue that comes from various sources including the State, and $4.25 million of fund balance the board applied to the budget last year, the amount of the budget supplied by local property taxes is $98,944,582. These taxes are largely from residential properties (only 3.5% of properties in New Castle are commercial or industrial). Of the nearly $99 million levy in property taxes, 91.8% is paid by New Castle and 8.2% by Mt. Pleasant.
The 2% calculation is made using only the actual tax levy—the $98,944,582 from property taxes. So, 2% of $98,944,582 would be around $1.9 million. Since a roll-over budget—rolling forward the very same program and conditions we have this year into next year—would require $3.1 million more in taxes, Chow said that the district needs to come up with $1.8 in cuts to remain within the 2% cap on the tax levy.
Chow did not explain the difference of $600,000 between the sum of the $1.9 and $1.8 and the $3.1 million roll-over figure. Nor did he explain how much of the roughly $4.4 million in fund balance he would put to use to lower any budget increase for the next school year.
Telling participants that he and the administration would try very hard to remain within the 2% tax cap, Chow also reminded them that a 2% rise in the tax levy might appear as more than a 2% budget increase, both because assessments have steadily decreased over the last several years and because some increases in expenses (such as pension and debt service) are exempted from the cap.
Although not all the numbers are in, Chow predicts that the budget increase will be 2.76% or lower.
Administrators’ take-away from the CCSD survey
According to Chow, the three most salient points of the survey the district conducted this autumn are these:
1) Of the 252 residents—both with and without children in schools—who were surveyed, 95% viewed the school district favorably, including the 66% who viewed it very favorably.
2) 69% of those surveyed say that taxes are too high already and even a modest increase to maintain high-quality education is not justified; yet 75% of those surveyed also said they “expect tax increases in the future”
3) 74% of those surveyed “agree that property values would decline if the quality of CCSD’s education declined
What to cut and how to raise more revenue?
In the second hour of the evening, participants were asked to discuss each of three questions (and write their answers on paper tablecloths). After each question, people were to seek out another table with new people and discuss the next question:
1) Expenditure Question: What can we give up and what are the tradeoffs—give examples?
2) Revenue Question: How else can we generate additional revenues to support the school budget?
3) Long-Term Question: What is a long-term financial issue that the school district must begin to address now. And, how?
McKay will compile and organize the results, then make them available to the public. Below are some suggestions heard at the session. Add your own ideas.
• Sell Bell to be made into condos
• Get more commercial lessees for Chappaqua Crossing
• Rent out unused classroom space
• Measure the effectiveness of course offerings
• Have kids who play sports pay for them
• Aggregate kids with special needs
• Charge more for school building rental
• Support legislative changes to pension requirements
• Eliminate busing
• Invite students from out of district pay to attend school here
• Redraw busing radius lines to bus fewer kids
• Work more closely with the town on fields
• Cut administrative positions
What would you be willing to see cut—or not cut?
How can the district bring in more revenue?
If 75% of the budget is for teacher and administrative salaries, healthcare, and their pensions it would seem to make sense that this area should be the first place to start cutting. If teachers and administrators participated in this budget-tax cap Knowledge Cafe how can we get an objective and fair resolution? Do we really think McKay . Chow, and teachers will vote for their own cuts? Of course not, they will look to cut services to opur kids first (like cutting or altering biusing routes, pay to paly athletics and performing arts, etc)
Our children are already suffering the results of budgets cuts as we have seen athletic, performing arts, and curriculum cuts. True reform that spares our children must come from teachers and administrators. Salary freezes and increased participation in their own benefits must take place. What are the odds that the teachers and administrators that participated in the Knowledge Cafe will support such action? Giving them a seat at the table distorts and distracts. We support, admire, respect, our teachers - this is not teacher bashing- but they must make true concessions - our children are already paying the price.
I pay enough in taxes. I should not also have to pay so my children can participate in the band or the softball team. My taxes should pay for bus service and other basic services. My taxes go up and my kids programs get cut. All this while teachers continue to get raises and entitlements and our administration becomes more bloated.
Make more and better use of BOCES. In all the years I’ve been here, I’ve heard almost nothing about their programs. What DO they offer that we could be making use of and not provide here, ourselves?
I would rather see fewer choices at the high school and more attention paid to those fewer courses.
Examine the number of courses offered at the h.s. Who ever looks at what courses are effective? Are there really none that are not? The whole line up should be examined and sorted.
What do we get from our cafeteria food providers? Can’t we give Rocky’s the contract?
Seriously, what about putting it out to bid? WHo do other districts use? Do we put our heads together with theirs or can we form a consortium with them to bargain?
I liked that idea in the town hall article about sustainability. The town and school dist should buy a composting machine for Hunt’s Lane and send the school’s food waste there instead. How much money would that save or make?
Eliminate some courses and let our students take them online (health?) and-or sell some online courses of our own to other districts? What don’t we need teachers to do?
Make teachers more productive by having parents or community members pitch in on cafeteria duty or reading supervision or reading to young children. I don’t mean cut teachers, but relieve them of some of the simpler duties.
It is an insult that the administration and CCSD school board continue to site the “community survey”. That survey was a classic case of Garbage in- Garbage out. As a marketing executive with years of experience with surveys, polls, and focus groups I know that desired results can be achieved merely by the types of questions asked, the order of the questions, and the language/wording of said questions.
Asst Supt Chow and Supt Mckay referenced the survey several times. They site high approval marks - favorable view of the district- as validation of their efforts.
Of course most residents have a favorable view of the general school district. Our students are nurtured at home, have extensive pre-nursery, pre-k experiences and we often get extra help and tutors for those that fall behind. Our teachers do a great job, standardized test results are strong, and college acceptance rates are high with impressive list of elite colleges and universities.
But is that really the issue when we are focusing in on our budget and taxes?
How different the results of this community survey had real and important penetrating questions been asked like -
Are you pleased with the performance of the CCSD School board in relation to their dealings with 1) budget, 2) teachers union, 3) administrative turnover,4)plan and strategy for the future..
Are you satisfied with the current 2 middle school configuration? Are you satisfied with the way in which the district keeps you informed? Do you think high taxes are keeping home buyers away as they may be seeking out other excellent districts with more affordable taxes?
You can bet the results of the hypothetical survey questions above would render a very different result than the ones being referenced.
To parent-taxpayer
I agree with you, however, pensions are set by Albany and are in our states constitution…you want to change it, be aware of who you vote for in state elections. Only vote for candidates who are willing to make major overhauls to state mandates. As for the rest, salaries and other benefits are contract issues. The teacher contract is up next year. That is when we will see if the administration has any guts whatsoever and if our teachers really care about their students.
As for this year…cut administration to the bone before cutting one more teacher or classroom support staff. In the last 3 years of the 77 staff that has been cut only 1 has been an administrator. Cut admin hard and deep before any cuts to classroom teachers and programs or asking taxpayers to shell out any out of pocket expenses for anything that should be covered in the budget.
Agree with Cut administration,
Where is the BOE? Administrators such as Chow and McKay will not do it. It is up to the BOE to show a firm hand. Do we really need 4 principals at the high school? Since she has advanced Mr. Selesnick to a deputy supt. position, why not hire a new HG principal and cut one asst. principal position whose salary is close to $200,000. We could use that money to save a course or program cut for our kids.
Take a look at the letter that gives the number of administrative positions and the salaries of all the administrators published in NCNOW a while ago. It is mind blowing!
Does anybody know what effect the $1.5 million contribution BOCES is claiming from the CCSD, as our share of the $18 million needed for their building rehabilitation, will have on the budget? Has it already been calculated in the budget, or will it require further cuts or compromise staying within the 2% tax levy?
Editor’s Note: Last sentence of first paragraph of the article: “The cost will not be felt in the district’s budget until 2014-2015, in that year around $47,000.”
To Cut Administration- I agree with you. We have a top heavy administration. Assistants have assistants. The problem is our school board anoints insiders to higher roles and responsibilities and these insiders than protect and take care of their own. Can we really expect Supt McKay to let go her own staff , many of whom she worked side by side with. Now Selesnick will be promoted from Greeley principal to asst Supt in charge of human resources and teacher evaluations. Can we expect that he will make recommendations to downsize? Of course not.
While much of this does emanate from Albany and mandates there is still much the CCSD BoE can do at home. Many communities got their teachers to freeze salaries and contribute a bit more to their own healthcare and benefits. Our school board extended the teachjers contract for an extra year because the teachers agreed to take a smaller raise than originally was originally in the contract. The joke is that our school board congratulated themselves for this accomplishment even though teachers are still getting raises EVERY year as well as steps and entitlements. Yes I agree , much lies in Albany but we can demand true give backs from teachers and administrators. We currently have almost the exact number of students enrolled in distract as we did 10 years ago so why do we have so many more administrators than we did back then?
To parent-taxpayer and GIGO above, your comments are well informed, laser sharp, and right on target. We want to see:
Administrator salaries FROZEN following the leadership example set by Pleasantville School District administrators.
Elimination of all non-essential administrative positions by expanding job descriptions, combining job duties, and outright layoffs of administrative positions non-essential to the three core questions driving our children’s learning in this school district.
Asking teachers, after decades of unchecked salary and benefit increases while taxpayers supporting them faced job losses, zero salary increases, and steep declines in the values of OUR retirement savings and property values, to willingly and altruistically do their small part this school budget cycle by voluntarily declining salary increases. I would gladly do so if I were a CCSD teacher who placed students’ learning above personal benefit and fully knowing that DAVID HOLDING UP THE GOLIATH IN OUR SCHOOL DISTRICT HAS SHRUNK AND WEAKENED TO AN UNSUSTAINABLE LEVEL.
Another year of budget problem with the entire increase going to pay raises in the form of higher salaries and benefits increases - not one dollar to the children. In fact, I am sure we will be cutting the classroom (with the support of the PTA) simply to increase the union ransom. I am tired of my children and I being held hostage by the teachers union and NYS. It is time to put the gauntlet down. BOE, show us a blueprint how we can eliminate 70 - 80 teaching jobs by shrinking the non-core courses in the offering and fix the structural benefits problem once and for all!!! Albany will not help as the teachers union (thanks Randi Weingarten) have bought and paid for Shelly Silver and company to maintain the status quo and bankrupt our suburban kids and communities. It is time to put it to the union once and for all - save your job or continue to give 12% raises for those with seniority who are left. I am sick of this. My taxes have doubled and we have not invested $1 in the kids in the form of technology, fields, infrastructure, curriculum, etc. in the last 10 years. ENOUGH!! I am tired of being held hostage to the teachers union. I would hope the PTA would be too.
For the 2012/13 budget meetings, we need better reporting and no fluff. The administration should use a uniform template for each department’s budget request. Have line graphs to show spending and head count for the past 10 years. Explain benefits/savings for large expenditures since 2009. Include 2011/12 projected actual expenditure, 2011/12 budget, and 2012/13 budget proposal. List costs in descending order.
Reduce 2012/13 administrative head count.
Increase class size to the maximum allowed in teacher’s contract.
Change the CCSD transportation policy to reduce cost.
Optimize use of BOCES. Very few CCSD students use BOCES programs. BOCES services are primarily used by the administration.
Stop accepting students that are not CCSD residents.
Fine-tune special education spending to match levels at similar school districts (e.g. Scarsdale, etc.).
Superintendent should provide a middle school consolidation plan and detailed cost savings.
Has anyone tried to tie the “Categories of Expenditures” table above with the approved budget? Bottom line is fine, but I could not match-up all the line items.
What I always thought would be helpful if dollars were aligned with the number of children impacted, thereby creating a per-student cost. An easy example is Transportation. For example….$ and # transporting in-district children to in-district scools….vs transporting in-district children to non-district schools…vs transporting non-district children to in-district schools. This per-unit format could also be used for salaries (regular vs special ed), technology, etc. Kind of an easier way to go after dollars IMO.
Cut Administrators, their salaries (and benefits) are through the roof, stop giving teachers and staff breakfasts and lunches on conference and staff development days, graduation should not require a thousands spent on a tent and extra custodial time for set-up and take down, two middle school sports and music programs seems excessive, what perks do administrators receive (like cars, mileage, housing, conferences and travel expenses)and what about cutting cafeteria costs? Let teachers teach and get rid of the activity period (which only accommodates 25% of the students, the rest sleep in,) and the MUB (which gives 1300 students unsupervised 80 minutes of “free time” since they are forbidden to see their teachers.) Perhaps English teachers should teach more than 4 classes more than 3 times a week and more time be given to the core academic subject areas.
Let a sign be posted in front of all Chappaqua schools reading in bold lettering, “CONSULTANTS PROHIBITED”, which would be rigidly enforced by the Chappaqua Police Department.
Congrats to “By Cafeteria contract on 12/12/2011 at 9:11 am” about giving the contract to Rockies. While I’m a fan of Rockies, running food service for 4 schools and providing a balanced, federally and localized governed mix of foods for thousands is a little different than running a deli.
To Just Thinking:
A lot of Eng depts give their teachers only four classes to teach. They need time to read and grade papers. It’s not unusual.
Every subject takes teacher time! Are you saying that English takes more time and work than teaching FIVE CLASSES of students in any other subject? Come on. ALL the serious core subjects—science, math and history—take time and effort. Because Eng teachers teach only four classes they have around 100 students to serve while every other subject has 125 and teachers have a schedule of FIVE classes. That’s a huge difference. Think about it. And that’s a budget problem too.
As a former Greeley student, I can tell you that “read and grade papers” is a very loose term. A particularly egregious example: one of my English teachers here was infamous for never reading papers and assigning grades arbitrarily. A classmate of mine, as a prank, submitted her paper stapled all the way around so it would be impossible to read without ripping apart the pages. Amazing how all the staples were intact yet she still had a (very good, mind you) grade on the back of it.
There are math, science, history (I definitely wrote more pages for my SS classes than English classes over four years) teachers who give infinitely more time to grading work and feedback than their counterparts in the English department. I strongly believe English teachers should start pulling their weight and teaching the same amount as their colleagues.
Yes, there is precedence for four classes, but there is also precedence in other school districts for five. Moreover, Greeley is, for better or worse, a leader in secondary education in the United States. Why shouldn’t we be the leaders in setting a new precedent?
Thanks to Eng takes time for the inside information.
Maybe we need to start doing more teacher evaluations, especially of English teachers.
Where are our so-called administrators and their oversight, or are they leaving the campus so early that they do not have the time to do their job?
Who is the English teacher who is not doing his her/his job?
Agree with Cut now.
Stop acting helpless because of Albany. There is much, as “Cut now” points out, that we CAN do locally.
And what is the BOE doing about the Albany mandates of LIFO and the Triboro Amendment. Last we heard was Randy Katchis was supposed to be attending to that significant issue that they all keep citing as an excuse for their inaction.
The BOE should have its own committee of two or three board members to liason with other districts who are lobbying for reform.
We need a progress report from the BOE on what they are doing in this regard.
Don’t ask that. People should tell that kind of thing to their principal or superintendent. And if your kid has had this kind of experience shame on you for not reporting it to authorities.
To: “Former Greeley Student” who wrote above about it: Did you ever report your experience?
Did any administrators know about this English teacher?
If not, why not? And if they did, what did they do about it?
Since we are talking about the budget and the 2%tax cap these comments should be broader and should include not just Greeley HS issues but district issues. Since we are discussing teacher work loads and time required - what about the elementary school art teacher that gets paid the same as the high school english teacher? Regardless of subjects taught these teachers get paid based on their years of service. So a second grade art teacher (that has no papers to grade, no homework to review) gets paid exactly the same as the AP Calculus Greeley teacher. The AP teacher not only grades papers and tests but may also be asked to write college letters of recommendation. Assuming both teachers are in district 12-15 years they both earn over $110k per year. That sound fair?
To Tell adminis:
Perhaps he or she did and, as so much else in the school, nothing was done.
Given Selesnick’s reclusive performance, you can bet he would not be interested.
If all the kids know, and are kidding around about it, you can bet it was common knowledge on campus.
Something like that, in a school environment, is hardly a secret.
It jumps out that the District has to cut 1.8 m from the budget and has an annual expense of 1.9 M to Boces, while recognizing it has the lowest usage of any district. The board did mentioned they appreciate the shared educational services that Boces provides, but on the student side send very few students to the programs.
This cost of 1.9 M annually is not broken out to distinguish the student cost from the educational services cost. It is not clear if the district is underutilizing the educational services portion of the expense or implying that the low usage by students is what accounts for the majority of the underused funds?
There should be a clear break down of the portion of the cost that covers educational services in order to understand if the district is utilizing this expense appropriatly.
Although we certainly can not compel more students to attend these program, we should have a clear understanding of the boards position on its use or lack of use of the funds payed out annually.
It seems highly inappropriate that the board was unfamiliar with this years usage plan despite having Boces on the Nov.meeting agenda.
While the district asks the community which services to our children need to be cut, we are not holding the district to account for their apparent disconnect on it’s responsiblities toward this portion of the budget.
Asking this question does not solve the problem of how to come up with the 1.8 M in cuts, but should highlight the level of concern that residents need have for the current board and Supt’s grasp of it’s resonsibilites and it’s overall preparedness on some very important decisions.
Oh please! There are so many times that parents do bring inappropriate behavior on part of a teacher to the Principal and your met with an excuse to brush away an incident, diminish your concerns, make you feel you’re being over sensitive, or just fail to see your point.
Don’t fool yourself - it’s not new just business as usual- it’s not their priority!
Does the CCSD have 1.9 MILLION in taxpayer money to under use while claiming it’s dire need to cut serevices for students.
Other than the funds that go directly to pay for student atendance in Boces class,(which are only a few) what part of 1.9 MILLION is the district not making use of in education service?
How could it be the BD of Ed is unprepared to understand a useage plan for such an expensive part of our budget?? Was a usege plan on anyones desk? Is it unreadable? Does it require interpretation? Do we need some tutors in to help the Bd. of Ed?
I may be very out of the loop but are other school districts unaware of thier usage plans?? are they making better use of this area of there budget tan our District?
The underlying problem to many issues we face is the way the CCSD Board of Education conducts itself. How could they not know the BOCES details, the economics, and our usage and participation? Do they not think $1.8million of taxpayer money is not important? That money will come at the expense of our children because the teachers and administrators will still get their annual raises and paid for benefits. The BoE is responsible for that too as they chose to let the union off easy with their make believe give backs instead of demanding a zero budget increase and a salary freeze as many other school districts Board of Eds were able to accomplish.
Our BoE promotes an inexperienced internal candidate to Superintendant and now we are living with her decisions which are intended to protect her own cronies and not rock the boat. We need bold and strong leadership. Based on McKays recommendation (which the BoE will follow) there will be no middle school reconfiguration. BOCES, Middle Schools, budgets, union negotiations are all examples of kick the can down the road with no real plan or strategy. They demonstrate the inadequacies of this CCSD BoE.
Yes, $1.8 million is a lot and we will lose some teachers but is the administration looking at all the smaller costs and seeing how those can be decreased so we can at least save some of those positions? Have they done a sustainability audit to see if we can save fuel and light costs? When the teachers take courses and get salary increases, can we be accept only those courses that meet the district’s specific plans? Are we still using text books? Are they necessary? Can we decrease paper costs by requiring all photocopying to be two-sided and does that happen automatically? Have we polled the teachers as to what cuts they could make? Even if all of this results in only one position that isn’t cut, it should be done.
I suggest you reduce transportation costs by eliminating door to door pick-up and delivery by mini-bus and return pick-up to main road pick-up routes which have in the past been the norm.
On the topic of transportation. It seems that several, if not most, of the buses must be running at half capacity according to the line of cars dropping off and picking up students from the high school and middle schools each day. Could we save $ by auditing the buses and consolidating those that are running at less than capacity?
On the topic of field trips. Parents pay a portion of the cost and, I believe, the rest is subsidized by BOCES. Therefore, budget cuts likely have not affected field trips. It is more likely that the district’s sensitivity toward a family’s ability to pay for trips during the economic downturn, as well as increased liability (parents threatening to take legal action against teachers and the district)and time constraints due to state assessments have resulted in fewer trips being offered.
