Richard Organisciak announced tonight that the District’s preliminary budget for 2009-10 calls for a 3.75% increase in spending. The District will seek to raise taxes 4.9% to support the increase.
The board refused to provide members of the public with copies of the budget documents, they are not available on the district’s web site and will not me made available to the public prior to tomorrow night’s budget meeting at New Rochelle High School.
Highlights include the following:
There will be an 11% cut in the budget for school supplies and materials so parents can look forward to being asked to provide over $100 per child in supplies in September.
There is now a “vacancy control process” in place so that newly vacated positions are not always being filled.
The district reduced its insurance coverage which will lower the cost of insurance premiums by $200,000
Full-Day Kindergarten for all schools is still in the budget.
After presenting the figures, copies of the budget were handed out to board members. In what was perhaps one of her worst acting performance, Cindy Babcock-Deutsche pretended that was not familiar with the budget numbers until announced by Organisciak.
In an evening full of laughable candards, Babcock-Deutsch affected to be pleasantly surprised that that the increase was below the state number. Of course, the state number she was referring to is a fabrication.
She said that if the budget was voted down in May that the increase in the budget would actually be greater because the budget would be managed by the state and tried to imply that if the state took control of the budget they would increase the budget by 4.1%. Organisciak added that if the budget were not passed then taxes would go up more than 4.9%.
It is hard to understand how they think people are so gullible in New Rochelle to believe that the District is proposing a budget lower than what the budget would be if the budget was voted down. Since when has the school district sought LESS money? The basis for this house of canards is they are using a figure (4.1%) from previous formulas used by the state when the State was not in the middle of the biggest economic crisis in decades. There is no way on earth that the State is going to mandate a budget increase like they have done in past years.
Organisciak actually called a 3.75% increase a “maintenance budget”.
Even more bizarre, Organisciak announced that negotiations with the unions is ongoing. What sort of negotiating is the District doing with the unions that they are going to disclose beforehand how much money they are allocated for the teacher and administrative salaries and benefits? It seems like it gives the other side the upper hand in a negotiation when you disclose your final position before you conclude the negotiations.
The first budget meeting is tomorrow night at New Rochelle High School but members of the public will not be allowed to see a copy of the budget until AFTER the first meeting — if then. There are only three budget meetings and one of them is solely dedicated to special education so that leaves just one meeting where the public can attend while knowing what the District is actually proposing.
UPDATE: we have received a comment – presumably from one of our elected officials who feels the need to cower behind the anonymity afforded by the internet which seeks to clarify the about issue on the state cap. Ironically, this is an answer to questions I raised last night at the board meeting which school officials declined to answer. He or She writes:
School districts that operate under a contingency budget in the 2009-10 school year will have their spending increase capped at 4.00 percent over last year’s budget. According to the law, the contingency budget cap is equal to the lesser of 120% of the calendar year average CPI increase or 4.00 percent. The average increase in the CPI for 2008 was 3.8 percent, and multiplying 3.8 percent by 120 percent equals 4.56 percent. Therefore, because the law defines the contingency budget cap as the lesser of 4 percent or 120 percent multiplied by the CPI increase, the contingency budget cap for the 2009-10 school year will be 4.00 percent.
If the budget presented by the Board is not approved by the community, then the Board has 3 options: resubmit the same budget for a second vote, resubmit a lesser budget for a vote or go right away to the contingency budget which is capped at 4% for SY 09-10.
The 4% contingency limit is a CAP. The Board could adopt a contingency budget at any level lower than the cap. In fact, the Board could adopt a budget higher than the budget submitted as long as it not exceed the cap set by the state. Given this scenario, it seems almost certain that whatever the outcome of the voted budget in New Rochelle, the tax rate increase of 4.9% since the budget presented to the community is below the 4% that is the cap for contingency budgets.
If the budget is rejected by the community in a second vote, then the Board must adopt a contingency budget.
To which I reply as follows:
The issue that interest many voters in New Rochelle is not whether you are proposing to be .25% below a cap or .35% below a cap but why the district has shown no indication of holding the line in negotiations with the unions, why the district is proceeding with districtwide full-day Kindergarten, why the district recently added a $60,000 position for a “community relations” person, why the district is spending over half a million dollars on legal services without any competitive bidding or a requirement for proposals for work done by the lawyers, why were are spending over $100,000 a year for cooking classes at a gourmet restaurant, why City Hall is chocked the gills with redundant administrative staff. And we have no information at all on what sort of requests were made by the District to Albany with regard to the $24 billion+ that New York State is getting as part of the stimulus package. Has the district ever considered not raising taxes at all? Of actually reducing spending from last year? Of discontinuing luxury programs like the cooking classes? How about not routinely exposing the District to multi-million dollar litigation? I believe you have a single school that is looking at multiple lawsuits right now where the money being demanded is somewhere approaching $5 million. Is any of that information going to be disclosed so that people fully understand what they are being asked to support?
If the District is so concerned about the public having an accurate understanding of what it is they are doing why not spend less time with pedantic diatribes and more time in using the District’s own web site to provide a full and accurate accounting of what the District is doing. You could start with publishing all of the hundreds of resolutions the board approves each year with zero input from the public and toss in the latest budget document as well.
I read the above and coupled
I read the above and coupled with Organisciak’s comments in the Sound Report, we are looking squarely in the face of insufferable incompetence. He has done absolutely nothing of substance to examine the existing budget process or content. His big achievement seems to reflect charging parents money for supplies or tacitly accepting the fact that teachers will, as often if the case, reach into their pocket to cover needs. Coupled with a dormant, unprepared and unresponsive school board, this City is on the road to ruin given the sheer audacity and reckless drivel that comes from the district.
there are enough facts above to support a change in administration and certainly mandate the election of Mr Wagner. Listen to the rant of Richard Organisciak –“our children are the stimulus to restart the economy” and “at no point can we let our educational instructions fail becfause they hold the key to recovery”. THIS IS ABSOLUTE SOPHISM its most cynical and worse, it is a disservice to every right thinking citizen who sees the enornmous issues facing our nation and hopes that our President has a plan to provide some relief.
We have a superintendent who says that our children will provide the stimulus to ramp up the economy. Can we wait? Maybe this superintendent can stake out a more modest position — let me suggest and reemphasize what others are saying — CUT COSTS, PROVIDE THE CITY WITH A CAPITAL PLANNING STRATEGY, SEVER YOUR TIES WITH THE LOCAL UNION REPRESENTATIVE AND COLLECTIVE BARGAIN APPROPRIATELY, REPLACE INEFFICIENT AND RISKY ADMINISTRATORS AND PRINCIPLES AND ABOVE ALL, ABOVE ALL — TRY TO REGAIN THE ACADEMIC POSITIION OUR YOUNGSTERS HELD A DECADE OR SO AGO WHEN COMPARED TO PEERS COUNTYWISE, STATE WISE AND EVEN NATIIONALLY.
Richard, you do not need a maintenance budget; you need a line by line accounting to the taxpaying voter regarding just what is in this maintenance budget. Start by mandating a 5% reduction from last years budget and go from there. You need to develop management 101 skills. Maybe Mr.Wagner can step in and help you as apparently the city fathers refuse to intercede and the current board is clueless
No one talks about our
No one talks about our utility taxes which goes to the public schools here. More disturbing is the recent article in the Post which claims pension costs are going to increase taxes. Has this been included in the proposed school budget?
This increase is absurd due
This increase is absurd due to our current economic conditions. The board and administrators are out of tune when it comes to this matter; especially, at a time when people are struggling to pay their bills, hold on to their jobs and homes. The school system has benefited thru the years with significant increases and now they want more in these difficult times. I think they need to take a closer look and cut more. Why not NO INCREASE or even a Decrease? Here are some suggestions: increase employee medical contributions from 5% to 20%, a pay freeze for this year, a pay cut for the top heavy administration, and hold off on full day kindergarten because we just can’t afford it this year. At the same time, I am sure there are a lot of other ways to trim the fat. What about the stimulus money? How can you still be negotiating with the union when you already presented this budget? My understanding is that the union is represented by a NewRo teacher and also heads the PTA? If so, then this sounds like a conflict of interest. We need to work harder at this and take into consideration some of these cost cutting measures as proposed. Keep in mind that difficult times calls for difficult decisions.
This only goes to show the
This only goes to show the arrogance of a system gone wild. They have absolutely no checks and balances except for one BIG one. DON’T VOTE TO APPROVE THE BUDGET. It’s sad to say that only about 3000 voters turned out to vote in the last school budget vote. Do you really want to change things? Go to the New Rochelle website (newrochrlleny.com) find all of the school admin and tell them what you think. Tell your district council person what you think. Call them on the phone.Whatever it takes. And, don’t vote yes for the budget. Are you happy that in every aspect of your life you’re being forced to do more with less? EVERYWHERE. Shouldn’t we expect that from those who spend OUR money? At least for tis year, can we have some responsibility to the taxpayers? Yes it is for the kids, however, the things that may be lacking have been lacking for years, so why it is imperative to adopt these things during the worst financial time in decades? They are promising full day kindergarten “if the budget passes”. Why not just bribe everyone to vote yes. Oh wait, that’s what their doing. In any big organization there is potential for savings. The city council cut their projected increase almost in half. Take a look at the school budget and ask yourself ” can they do better?”. Let your answer guide you and get out and VOTE.