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Massena Central looking at $2.5 million budget gap for '17-'18; may restore three teaching positions

Posted 2/16/17

Updated 3:08 p.m. Feb. 17 to clarify cost of proposed teacher positions By ANDY GARDNER MASSENA -- The Massena Central School Board will have to consider closing a $2.5 million gap when coming up …

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Massena Central looking at $2.5 million budget gap for '17-'18; may restore three teaching positions

Posted

Updated 3:08 p.m. Feb. 17 to clarify cost of proposed teacher positions

By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The Massena Central School Board will have to consider closing a $2.5 million gap when coming up with their 2017-2018 budget.

“If nothing changed today and the board approved this budget, that would be the same as last year with a designated fund balance of $2.5 million,” District Superintendent Patrick Brady said. “BOCES costs we’ve not seen yet, there’s another cost we’ve not seen and we have requests from buildings as well.”

Their spending plan will revolve around how much they receive from the state. Brady’s preliminary budget presentation included a graph that showed state aid has been trending upward for the last several years.

“We have seen an increase in total state aid over the last four years since we came out of the recession,” he said.

Due to a freeze on Foundation Aid, they have still been receiving less money than they should be getting out of Albany.

“It’s not clear if the legislature is planning to change the Foundation Aid,” Brady said. “It looks like the Assembly has shown some interest … not clear with the Senate.”

The state-imposed tax cap for last year was 1.51 percent, and a 1 percent tax increase brings the district $142,586.

Although their health insurance is going up, teacher and employee retirement contributions are going down. The employee retirement payment will drop 13.7 percent and the teacher retirement is decreasing 9.1 percent. Health insurance will comprise 10.8 million of their roughly $50 million budget, Brady said.

“One out of every five dollars we spend her is on health insurance, so we spend quite a bit of time trying to keep that cost under control,” he said.

Brady said he would like to see some positions restored.

“We lost a few positions during the recession. Some of this is bringing those back,” he said.

He is proposing two teachers at the high school, one art and one English, and a Nightingale special education teacher. They would all cost the district around $85,000 each, according to the presentation.

“When we’re looking at positions like that, we have to put the total cost to the budget -- salary, payroll taxes and benefits," Brady said.

Requests include spending $70,000 on “curriculum and instruction support” and give teachers more for classroom supplies, to the tune of $23,000.

“Each teacher gets $100 for supplies. What this would do is get them up to about $300. Some areas, art, science, music they need to get more than that,” Brady said.

Other additional budget requests include $8,375 for girls modified lacrosse, $4,500 for a robotics program (if they can’t find another district to partner with), $60,000 for technology, $15,000 for a district sign and $38,400 for summer painting, which he says is badly needed. Overall, requests total about $845,000.

Brady said the budget requests at this point are perceived needs and they will later look at them more closely to see if they can afford them and if they are worth pursuing.

“We look at prioritizing and looking at what is our absolute needs … none of these are recommendations at this point," he said.

The district will hold another budget forum in March and the board will vote whether or not to adopt a spending plan in April. It will go to the voters in May.