John Quinn, the Assistant Superintendent of Schools for Business and Administration for the City School District of New Rochelle presented the 2012-13 preliminary school budget.
Download PDF of Preliminary 2012-13 School Budget
In explaining how the tax levy permitted to New Rochelle under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2% tax levy cap, Quinn revealed that the district’s proposed budget was over $200,000 below the maximum allowable under the “tax cap” plan prompting long-time school board member to ask for an explanation of the administration’s in logic in both bemoaning the impact of the tax cap (see the Superintendent’s statement below) and not taking the maximum allowable increase under the cap. Quinn did not provide an explanation.
School board President Chrisanne Petrone requested that Quinn put a copy of his table explaining the tax levy on the district web site, after expressing her view that many people would be asking for just such an explanation.
UPDATE: The table is now available.
The table is based on the New York State Comptroller Tax Cap Calculator on the OSC web site:
Local Government and School Accountability
Real Property Tax Cap InformationThis information is being provided to local government officials to assist them with implementing the property tax cap and will be updated frequently. Initially, this site will provide guidance for those local governments that will be the first to develop budgets under the new law (e.g., those that operate on a calendar year fiscal year) and will be updated in the future to provide information and guidance to school districts, local governments with fiscal years that do not coincide with the calendar year, local taxing entities and taxpayers.
Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak re-stated remarks he had made at the school board meeting on Tuesday in which he painted a bleak picture of school district finances – eliminating 63 positions, increasing class sizes at all grade levels, consolidating of other classes, and more.
The newly formed Citizen Budget Committee, first announced by Chrisanne Petrone at the end of February, was formally adopted in a resolution passed by the board in a Special Meeting prior to the Budget Review meeting. Petrone said the committee will work on an expedited basis to review the budget over the coming both and make recommendations on ways to achieve cost savings. she stressed the “pilot” nature of the committee with the idea that the process developed this year will serve as the basis for a more full-fledged effort next year.
The Community Members of the Committee are Edward Ackerman, Adam Egleberg, Mary Monzon and Suyen Taylor. The committee will be chaired by school board member David Lacher. District Treasurer Carol Amorello will represent the administration on the committee. Board Vice President Jeffrey Hastie, who had discussed the idea of a citizen budget committee during his campaign for school board in 2009, will serve as an ex-officio member of the committee.
Petrone also announced two innovations in the move to broadcast live the budget review meetings on TV and over the web. During the budget review meetings, viewers will be to call a phone number and ask questions which will be read aloud and answered during the meeting. In addition, a special email address has been set up (budget questions@nred.org) so that residents can submit questions at any time via email.
A PDF version of the budget will be available on the district web site in the next day or so.
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 2012-13 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 preliminary budget that I will be presenting to the Board of Education will call for $5,000,000 reduction from that of a maintenance budget for this current year. Included within that recommendation will be a proposed 4.5% personnel reduction and the possible elimination of close to 63 positions. If accepted, the recommended action would bring the total to almost 220 positions that have been eliminated over the last three years. The significance of these new losses will be felt in all corners of our district. On this point, I think it is important to mention that, while the individual principals offer recommendations about where to achieve personnel reductions in their school, the final determination will be made by the central administration and Board of Education after a review and assessment of the overall impact of these recommendations.”
Coupled with the proposed personnel reductions, some of which will be achieved through attrition, some through retirement and most through position elimination and layoff will be a 5% reduction in funding for supplies and materials, as well as further deferrals in necessary infrastructure and building related expenditures. The personnel reductions may have the added consequence of increasing class sizes at all grade levels while possibly requiring the consolidation of other classes.
While the Executive Budget announced by the Governor calls for a 4% statewide increase in State Aid for the upcoming year, the net increase in State Aid for New Rochelle next year is approximately $100,000. Federal stimulus support has vanished, including $1.8 million in funds targeted for job retention in the last budget cycle. By way of further example, our Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant funded through the U.S. Department of Education in the amount of $1,657,000 is scheduled to expire by June 2012.
Aside from the Governor’s proposed $250 million State Competitive Efficiency Grant, there has been no mention of any legislative financial support for initiatives of any consequence at local level. Thus, our funding streams will be even more stagnant.
In an effort to identify possible revenue sources outside the realm of public funding, I will propose to the Board of Education that it consider possible tuition enrollment for non-resident students of New Rochelle wishing to attend our schools. Likewise, I will pursue conversations with our elected officials and legal counsel to identify possible advertising and marketing partnerships that can serve as financial support for our extra curricula program offerings.
In working within the definition of the tax levy cap which in New Rochelle equals 2.13%, we are prepared to bring to the Board of Education, a tax levy increase rate of 2% which fully complies with all legislative requirements. As a result, our budget to budget increase from the 2011-12 school year to the 2012-13 school year will be 1.09% resulting in a projected tax rate increase of 4.05% for the 2012-13 school year.
A great deal of thought and analysis has proceeded the budget recommendations to be offered to the Board of Education and ultimately the citizens of New Rochelle for consideration and acceptance. 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 and hopefully for years to come.
Thank you for your ongoing support and the value you have always placed upon our outstanding school district.
I can’t imagine a more flawed & broken system.
At best this is a guestimation by the BoE since they don’t know what the assessment total will be on 8/1 & instead opt to use figures that have yet to be determined due to the assessment appeal process which starts in early June & ends in late July.
Only the New Rochelle school distrct prepares its budget without knowing the assessment total as most school districts & taxing authorities use fixed totals, usually from the previous year. I can’t imagine a more flawed & broken system.
Also don’t forget, the top 20 paid staff collectively earn over $5 million.
Who’d EVER vote for a person that wants to raise taxes the max?
“Quinn revealed that the district’s proposed budget was over $200,000 below the maximum allowable under the “tax cap” plan prompting long-time school board member to ask for an explanation of the administration’s in logic in both bemoaning the impact of the tax cap (see the Superintendent’s statement below) and not taking the maximum allowable increase under the cap. Quinn did not provide an explanation.”
Which board member was this? I’d like to know because I don’t want to EVER vote for a person that wants to raise our taxes the maximum just because. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if someone on the board said, hey how about we cut this that or the other thing to lower the tax increase even further. With this kind of mindset, is it any wonder our taxes are out of control?
Can somebody teach me this
Can somebody teach me this trick.