The Seaford School District’s budget crunching process in an attempt to avoid drastic cuts to programs and staff is progressing, but much work still lies ahead before a final spending proposal is adopted.
Seaford began the budget process facing the task of cutting $2.3 million in order to comply with new tax cap rules. That number has now been reduced to around $1.5 million after the district found some savings and budget adjustments based on actual spending for the current year. However, Seaford Superintendent Brian Conboy said during Thursday night’s school board meeting that without a large restoration of state aid, big reductions will be likely.
“We’re slowly chipping away at our deficit,” said Conboy during Thursday's meeting held at Seaford Manor School. “We have a lot of hard work to do.”
Two areas the district has been exploring for savings but is trying hard to prevent are dropping to eight period days at Seaford High School and Seaford Middle School and reducing to a half-day kindergarten program.
"Only out of a dire necessity would we look to do it," Conboy said.
As part of the Seaford school board’s efforts toward avoiding major educational and extracurricular program cuts, line by line savings have been explored. At Thursday night’s meeting, the district’s Director of Technology Fred Kaden gave a presentation on his needs for next year and identified $107,800 in savings for the budget including postponing projects like making all district buildings wireless until 2014.
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Conboy said the State Legislature is scheduled to adopt its 2013/14 budget next week and he is hopeful some high tax and foundation aid will be restored to Seaford. An executive budget proposal released by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January has Seaford losing 6.88 percent in state aid.
When factoring in required payments to the Teacher's Retirement System, Seaford is permitted a 3.56 percent tax levy increase for the 2013/14 school year. If the school board opted to pierce the tax cap, then a 60 percent majority approval would be needed during the May 21 budget vote.
The next budget discussion is scheduled for March 21 with the topics of athletics and programs at the middle school and high school discussed to see where savings can be achieved.
An additional school board meeting devoted to the budget is scheduled for April 4 with April 11 targeted as when a proposed spending plan will be adopted.
Related-
- Seaford Considers Eight Period Schedule for 2013/14 Budget
- Seaford Facing 3.56 Percent Allowable Tax Levy Increase
- Cuts to 'High Tax Aid' Hit Local School Districts Hard
- Seaford School Officials Begin Laying Groundwork for 2013/14 Budget
- Seaford PTA Leaders Urge Adding Programs for 2013/14 Budget
BC: DONT TOUCH MY EMPLOYEES! BOE: so we cut kindergarten cut special ed, cut IT, cut reading seems these KIDs are getting the short end of the stick BC: Blame it on ALbany - take the heat away from our spending habits. You could always go OVER the CAP , parents WANT all these things dont they? then they need to pay ,like i said blame it on Albany ! BOE: your right ! We can write letters! deflect the spotlight from us and repoint it to them! BC: Dont forget you have to reward my teachers and my admin with raises BOE: NO money BC: raise the cap! BOE: but the kids? BC: Raises help them perform better! Makes them feel appreciated, wanted trust me been there myself it works! I know how they think! BOE: if the budget fails? BC: it wont : Dont worry it wont go to contingency again the parents dont want the kids to suffer: we can sell this ! BOE: ok Arent ALL fairy tales founded in some truth?
BOE:We need to cut support personnel BC: impossible, we cant they are all needed, very vital to the day to day of the district BOE: ok we need to reclassfiy some titles down grade them- BC: we cant -everyone is titled where they need to be- vital to the day to day of the district BOE: we need to cut from the athletics. AD: NO cant do that vital to the entire sports "family" we have here in Seaford BOE: where can we cut from Director of IT:(after being nudged by bc) WELL i can give you the 100k out of my budget does that help ? BOE: done! BOE: we need to find 2.4 mil to CUT BC: Well reverting back to 1/2 kindergarten is an option cut from special ed perhaps or reading? perhaps larger class sizes? BOE: we are looking for areas that dont directly effect students? BC: EVERYTHING directly effects students cont'd
Lorraine please run for the Board. We need meaningful cuts. We need to save ourselves. The blaming Albany story is a old one. All true, but it is not going to change. We need real cuts to positions and all other aspects of this budget. No one wants to pay for this anymore. BC is a product of this system and he will not swing that axe unless we demand it. Time to do what needs to be done. We all grew up with half day Kindergarten just fine. And let parents pay for sports and band camp and other NON educational issues.
In regards to half-day K and us growing up just fine, while true that we are fine I am guessing you don't have children currently in the school system to see the increased demands of the Common Core standards which begin in K. Take a look at the Math and ELA standards: http://www.corestandards.org/ The kindergarten of today is a whole new ballgame. Good luck teaching the curriculum in what essentially breaks down to 2 hours of instructional time in the half-day setting. Sports cannot be pay-to-play. NYS law prohibits it. NYSED continues to put unfunded mandates into place, and then Albany compounds the problem by shortchanging LI while using our tax dollars to fund education throughout the state. Blaming Albany is not old news and something that should not be pushed aside. Looking forward to hearing your insight and cost-saving ideas.
If that means cutting back on some employees and making some courses after school activites would you not rather we do that then lose them all together? You cant have it all! CHOICES parents and taxpayers have to make choices. I would HATE for ALL of these kids to ONCE again go thru a contingency year becaseu EVERY special interest group, employee & parent etc threw themselves onthe sword moaning NOT this or NOt that. OUR primary goal is to EDUCATE and do it WELL not half assed becasue we needed to keep cheer or marching band or pay and keep people @ salaries we can not afford. Simply because we have always had almost a 1:1,5 ratio of LRS to TRS employees doesnt mean we NEED a ratio of 1:1.5 . now does it?
We need to STOP making excuses " poor seaford no money" - and start making SMART CHOICES and come up with some innovative SOLUTIONS to work within the dollars that what we DO have.
Because to be truthfull if this BOE doesnt make a concerted effort to show the community that they are SERIOUSLY exploring ALL options NO exceptions to insure there are cuts in spending. Cuts that do NOT effect the quality of EDUCATION for all students then i truly feel sorry for these kids. Throwing good money after bad without making MAJOR changes as to how this district thinks &spends & prioritizes is going to be the death knell for Education in this district.We can not continue as we have its not going to get better,we need solutions not JUST letters to Albany, we need leadership,a strong steady hand with a razor sharp scapel, innovative solutions on the local level, we need parents to be fully cognizant that PS's can no longer be everything to everyone.This is NOT the economy nor Seaford of the 1980 or 1990's.This is TODAY We need new fresh creative solutions to fund & educate our students TODAY.Ones we the taxpayers can financially sustain. So where would you cut & why?
"The Plainview-Old Bethpage PTA Council, The Plainview Congress of Teachers, Syosset Council of PTAS, and the Syosset Teachers Association will host a "legislative breakfast" in April to discuss major issues facing local school districts. The public is invited to the session in Plainview where organizers plan to discuss the issues with invited federal, state and local legislators. Organizers said the key isses include: •High Stakes Testing and the effect it has on children •The 2 percent tax cap •Large cuts in state aid All parents, teachers, administrators, and board members are encouraged to attend th event meet and question government representatives. Students are welcome. Invited Legislators include: •Congressman Steve Israel •State Senator Carl Marcellino •Arthur Anderson representing State Senator Kemp Hannon •Assemblyman Charles Lavine •Nassau County Legislator Judy Jacobs •Town of Oyster Bay Councilwoman Rebecca Alesia The session, which includes a continental breakfast will be held at Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School Saturday April 6 beginning at 10 a.m. Space is Limited: Please RSVP by 4/1 to meetyourrepresentative@gmail.com. Ok so why Cant Seaford along with the letter writing do something similiar? Perhaps because none of our elected representatives or officals would come?
On a slightly unrelated note, I would like to see Seaford explore the opportunities that are out there and make the most of them. In Levittown, every classroom in the district (K-12) is equipped with a SmartBoard, thanks in large part to a grant from BOCES. From what I hear, it was a no-brainer and cost Levittown very little. There seem to be opportunities out there that we as a SD either pass up on or fail to even explore. And yes I agree, this is not the 1990's (although the early 90's was another "bleak" period for educational funding on LI...it does seem cyclical - mid 70s, early 90s, early '10s).
Not having kids in school I tend to take a more pragmatic non emotional business perspective .Knowing there are things you DO have control over and can immediately implement change vs things you have NO control over and can not immediately change is key in formulating successful sustainable business and action plans. The key word here is CHANGE- Work within the current Albany dictated paradigm to effect change in areas you DO have control over to support your specfic and defined GOALS. A major component of that is HR- Personnel- Again we have to work within certain legal parameters however what is NOT dictated nor controlled are two things: WHO we hire and at what pay scale.A successful leader does not neccessarily know everything about everything, but highly successful leaders insure the people surrounding them are expert , for one reason, they can depend on that level of expertise, insuring the leadership makes informed insighful decisons that effect the business. Bascially you surround yourself with the BEST on all strategic levels. We in Seaford have a tendency to overlook that major component of a sucessful business.
The first course of business is to always look at WHO you have employed WHY they are employed and what VALUE/Expertise do they bring to the business across the board. When we take control of HR we START taking control of WHERE this district is headed and the monies expended. We have been constant in doing things the SAME way for years. Ironically the world outside is changing evolving and Seaford has not Adapted. We need to be forward thinking , not dependant on previous successs & methodologies of 20 yrs ago To be successful NOW we need to change evolve and adapt to the TODAY laying the ground work for tomorrow. If we dont evoke change and Adapt then both the students and the taxpayers will continue to pay the price.