Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak announced significant spending reductions and job cuts in the 2012-13 school budget which will be made public Thursday at the first in a series of Budget Review meetings to be held at New Rochelle High School.
Organisciak did not give a specific number but said the budget would increase by 1.09%. Total spending described in the 2011-12 budget was about $229.5 million last year implying that this year’s budget will be about $232 million. The tax levy, capped at 2% with an exception for certain costs such as pension obligations and voter-approved capital costs, will go up 4.05%, according to Organisciak.
Organisciak again described what the district calls a “maintenance budget”, a made up term which means the size of a new budget based on automatic increases, such as contractual salary increases, carried forward from the previous year. Organisciak said the 2012-13 budget increase of $2.5 million amounted to a $5 million reduction.
Organisciak read a prepared statement to the board:
With the economy continuing to sputter and stall, the New Rochelle School District will enter its fifth year of cost cutting measures seriously impacting every aspect of our educational mission. Adding to the existing challenges from previous years, the 2012-2013 school year will also need to contend with a tax levy cap, which constricts even further the access to valuable resources needed to educate our children to become productive global citizens. The significance of these new losses will be felt in all corners of our district…Recognizing the financial challenges that impact families, employees, our community and our city, we believe that this proposed budget safeguards our commitment to offering all students quality educational programming for the 2012-13 school year hopefully for years to come.
Organisciak described a litany funding woes, describing “funding streams” as more “stagnant this year than in the already difficult past.
- Federal stimulus money has ended (a loss of $1.8 million from last year).
New York State state aid will be largely unchanged (a minor increase of $100,000).
A federal grant (Safe Schools/Healthy Students) which provided $1.7 mm will end three months.
New Rochelle will received none of Governor Cuomo’s $250 million State Competitive Efficiency Grant.
Things have gotten so desperate that Organisciak said he has been exploring two radical ideas: allowing non-resident students to pay tuition to attend school in New Rochelle and signing marketing deals for New Rochelle sports teams.
New Rochelle of Education President Chrisanne Petrone added a new draft resolution from last week calling for the creation of a Citizen Budget Committee. Calling it a “labor of love”, Petrone described a pilot program which would serve as a sort of test case for involving residents with financial experience in the budget review process in a formal way. Stressing the short-window and described the committee as a pilot program. Petrone’s resolution was met with widespread support. The idea of such a committee was raised three years ago by then-candidate and current board member Jeffrey Hastie.
The board announced they would hold a special meeting before the Budget Review meeting to approve a final resolution creating the new committee. The members of the committee will consist of four New Rochelle residents, a member of the New Rochelle Board of Education and a member of the administration. The exact membership of the committee will be announced Thursday. Committee meetings were tentatively scheduled for March 8th, March 13th, March 20th and March 28th. David Lacher, who played a role in bringing the idea forward this year, has expressed interest to be the board member on the committee as has Hastie although any board member can attend meetings as an ex-officio member of the committee.
Talk of the Sound reviewed the draft resolutions last week.
