POPLAR RIDGE -- Taxpayers in the Southern Cayuga Central School District will see a lean budget when they go to the polls on May 20.
During a board of education meeting Monday lasting more than three hours, the board voted 4-3 to adopt the 2008-09 school budget of $16,448,192.15, an increase of 3.37 percent from last year with a tax levy increase of 5.24 percent.
Board members went line by line, cutting the fat off the proposed budget to ensure fiscal responsibility while maintaining academic integrity.
The budget reflected a significant amount of trimming prior to the meeting. Staffing for special education, social studies for grades seven through 12 and specials at Emily Howland Elementary School will all be reorganized to allow the district to reduce one special education teacher, one social studies teacher -- there was a resignation and the district will not fill the post -- and a .5 full-time equivalent music teacher.
Additionally, administrators will see a reduction in salaries, the board of education budget was reduced by $2,000 and the amount of money used by school principals for travel and conferences will be reduced from $8,000 to $1,500. Audio/visual equipment requests will be reduced by $15,000, athletic equipment will be reduced by $20,000, and co-curricular advisors will be paid at a contract rate, allowing the district to adjust $17,000.
At issue on Monday was the number of third grade sections as the incoming third grade class is larger than in the past, Superintendent Mary Kay Worth said. Currently there are only three sections of third grade, but if that remains unchanged, class sizes will be more than 20 students for the next academic year.
Board members deliberated over keeping three sections or hiring a new teacher to create a fourth section.
Board Vice President Michelle Dean said that it's about academic achievement.
"We're talking about a group of kids being successful," she said.
The district reduced the line item cost for bus parts by $7,000 and landscaping costs by $9,000 and increased the tax levy increase to 5.24 percent from 4.98 percent to find the funding to add a third grade teacher.
But board members Jim Wilcox, Dean Winspear and Leonard Jordan believed the budget could be trimmed further by eliminating the cost of the school resource officer provided by the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office and eliminating one of two nurses at the high school, and thus voted against the budget.
Read the full report in Tuesday's edition of The Citizen.
Board members went line by line, cutting the fat off the proposed budget to ensure fiscal responsibility while maintaining academic integrity.
The budget reflected a significant amount of trimming prior to the meeting. Staffing for special education, social studies for grades seven through 12 and specials at Emily Howland Elementary School will all be reorganized to allow the district to reduce one special education teacher, one social studies teacher -- there was a resignation and the district will not fill the post -- and a .5 full-time equivalent music teacher.
Additionally, administrators will see a reduction in salaries, the board of education budget was reduced by $2,000 and the amount of money used by school principals for travel and conferences will be reduced from $8,000 to $1,500. Audio/visual equipment requests will be reduced by $15,000, athletic equipment will be reduced by $20,000, and co-curricular advisors will be paid at a contract rate, allowing the district to adjust $17,000.
At issue on Monday was the number of third grade sections as the incoming third grade class is larger than in the past, Superintendent Mary Kay Worth said. Currently there are only three sections of third grade, but if that remains unchanged, class sizes will be more than 20 students for the next academic year.
Board members deliberated over keeping three sections or hiring a new teacher to create a fourth section.
Board Vice President Michelle Dean said that it's about academic achievement.
"We're talking about a group of kids being successful," she said.
The district reduced the line item cost for bus parts by $7,000 and landscaping costs by $9,000 and increased the tax levy increase to 5.24 percent from 4.98 percent to find the funding to add a third grade teacher.
But board members Jim Wilcox, Dean Winspear and Leonard Jordan believed the budget could be trimmed further by eliminating the cost of the school resource officer provided by the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office and eliminating one of two nurses at the high school, and thus voted against the budget.
Read the full report in Tuesday's edition of The Citizen.
