The Southern Cayuga Central School District is taking steps to save money as it goes into what leaders expect to be a difficult financial year.

With state legislators taking no action last week on Gov. David Paterson's proposed mid-year cuts to school aid, Southern Cayuga is looking at its operation and how to be additionally responsible with its money.

During its regular meeting Monday, the district's board of education and Superintendent Mary Kay Worth discussed what can be done now in-house to contract district spending.

“We've frozen spending, we've asked for encumbrances for everything straight through the year, including field trips, conferences,” Worth said in a telephone interview. “(Faculty and staff) need to name specifically what they want to do and how many resources they need.”

Worth is waiting for Paterson's first budget proposal, expected in just a few weeks, to determine how her district may be impacted by the state's fiscal crisis.

“We're really being cautious and conservative with this year's budget so that we can keep well within and hopefully under the budget to help us in preparing for the following year,” she said, “which is a common practice in difficult financial times.”

Worth and the board received queries from two audience members during the Nov. 10 meeting about what the district would do if state aid stayed the same this year or even decreased.

“I think we need to be very careful in how we spend money,” board member Jim Wilcox said during that meeting, “but we need to educate kids, too. We just need to be creative here. Responsibly creative.”

In other news:

#&149; The board unanimously awarded a bid to Filtrec of Auburn to replace one of two district bus lifts at a cost of $15,595.

The board voted during a meeting last month to appropriate no more than $100,000 from the unreserved, unappropriated fund balance to replace the bus lift, which is deemed an ordinary contingent expense and eligible for up to 81 percent in state aid.

Although the district has a second bus lift used to provide maintenance to the bus fleet, district officials are unsure how much longer the lift will be operable.

Worth said the bid came in as expected.

#&149; The next board meeting is slated for 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 8 in the high school library, Route 34B, Poplar Ridge.

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net