Attempting to whittle a projected 18-percent tax levy increase down to 4 percent, Southern Cayuga school officials face the unsettling task of addressing mounting debts with staff and program cuts.
Superintendent Thomas Turck said in a press release that leaps in costs for health insurance, teacher retirement and heating costs, coupled with a $300,000 debt, represents more than $719,000 in extra spending that is “largely out of the district's control.”
The debt relates to the BOCES capital project, a loan the district took out for replacing the roof on the high school and maintaining the school district's bus fleet.
School administrators have proposed slashing three full-time teaching positions, one administrative position, a planetarium director position, a guidance counselor, a hall monitor and a typist.
Additionally, the school's late afternoon bus run for extracurricular and interscholastic activities may be discontinued, and the spending on those activities may be cut 40 percent.
Both Turck and school board president Ted Rejman voiced their hope that the public will attend the next school board meeting on April 10 in force.
“The best way for them to help us is to become informed,” Turck said.
“It's important to hear from the community - this has not been adopted and we're not done with it yet,” Rejman echoed.
During Monday's school board meeting, Turck reviewed the process undertaken so far to reduce the initial spending plan that would have increased expenditures by more than $1.3 million and the local tax levy by 18 percent.
Turck acknowledged that any personnel cuts could negatively impact the overall programming delivered to students. Cuts, however, seem unavoidable.
“We can't expect taxpayers to fund more and more programs, so the question becomes how much do you cut?” he said.
But Rejman said that as a taxpayer with a large family and a vested interest in area schools, he would willingly pay higher taxes if it would maintain programs. “This is about our kids' education,” he said.
Turck said the district has tried to spread the cuts over different schools. He added that such reductions should come as no surprise to those familiar with the fiscal history of Southern Cayuga's schools, but lamented the negative impact of the cuts on schoolchildren as well as the people losing jobs.
“Your focus is most obviously on the kids. This is not totally unexpected but it still makes it unpleasant - this is also people's livelihood,” he said.
Turck said the additional pressure might challenge the school board's collective creativity, as it mulls the proposed slashes.
To hear Rejman's response, board approval of the proffered cuts will be grudging, to say the least. “I think we've cut too far. We've tried this before, we go a year, find we need more help, and hire somebody back. It's not good for the kids,” Rejman said.
Staff writer Olivia Goldberg can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 235 or olivia.goldberg@lee.net
The debt relates to the BOCES capital project, a loan the district took out for replacing the roof on the high school and maintaining the school district's bus fleet.
School administrators have proposed slashing three full-time teaching positions, one administrative position, a planetarium director position, a guidance counselor, a hall monitor and a typist.
Additionally, the school's late afternoon bus run for extracurricular and interscholastic activities may be discontinued, and the spending on those activities may be cut 40 percent.
Both Turck and school board president Ted Rejman voiced their hope that the public will attend the next school board meeting on April 10 in force.
“The best way for them to help us is to become informed,” Turck said.
“It's important to hear from the community - this has not been adopted and we're not done with it yet,” Rejman echoed.
During Monday's school board meeting, Turck reviewed the process undertaken so far to reduce the initial spending plan that would have increased expenditures by more than $1.3 million and the local tax levy by 18 percent.
Turck acknowledged that any personnel cuts could negatively impact the overall programming delivered to students. Cuts, however, seem unavoidable.
“We can't expect taxpayers to fund more and more programs, so the question becomes how much do you cut?” he said.
But Rejman said that as a taxpayer with a large family and a vested interest in area schools, he would willingly pay higher taxes if it would maintain programs. “This is about our kids' education,” he said.
Turck said the district has tried to spread the cuts over different schools. He added that such reductions should come as no surprise to those familiar with the fiscal history of Southern Cayuga's schools, but lamented the negative impact of the cuts on schoolchildren as well as the people losing jobs.
“Your focus is most obviously on the kids. This is not totally unexpected but it still makes it unpleasant - this is also people's livelihood,” he said.
Turck said the additional pressure might challenge the school board's collective creativity, as it mulls the proposed slashes.
To hear Rejman's response, board approval of the proffered cuts will be grudging, to say the least. “I think we've cut too far. We've tried this before, we go a year, find we need more help, and hire somebody back. It's not good for the kids,” Rejman said.
Staff writer Olivia Goldberg can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 235 or olivia.goldberg@lee.net
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