The Scotia-Glenville School District’s proposed budget was one of the few in New York defeated by voters this month. The Board of Education is meeting tonight as they come up with a new plan.
The proposed $67 million budget would have increased the tax levy by 5.09 percent. Since that number is above the 3.25 percent tax cap set by the state, it needed a 60 percent supermajority to pass. It got 55 percent amid higher turnout from last year.
Pamela Carbone has been a member of the Board of Education for nearly 29 years.
Carbone was not happy with the outcome.
“This community generally supports the school district and understands that we don’t ask them for anything more than we really need for the kids and I was very disappointed to find out that we didn’t reach the supermajority,” she said.
In the aftermath of the result, the Board of Education met Thursday to discuss its next steps. Members were presented with two options that both reduce the total by about $600,000.
One would ensure the district keeps two reading teachers and a librarian employed, but makes cuts to the district’s Buildings and Grounds staff, coaches, and Special Ed BOCES tuition.
The other prevents those cuts but axes the reading teachers and librarian.
Both scenarios would increase the tax levy by 3.25 percent, meaning a simple voter majority would be needed for it to pass.
Board vice president Kimberly Talbot says she thought the meeting went well. She is leaning toward the first option.
“We cannot cut reading, we cannot cut a librarian and I personally felt, reading and library and the safety of our kids was something that I was not going to cut and we listened to our community we went out for the first budget, got voted down, this one is giving us still everything that we asked for,” she said.
Carbone agrees.
“Option A puts the things in that the community asked us for we had parents asking us to keep the reading teachers, to keep the librarians, to keep the SROs, to keep the athletic trainer, and we wanted to keep these because of the health and safety of our kids, these are all important things to have,” she said.
The board may also choose to adopt a contingency budget, but members did not want to consider that. A contingency budget plan was not presented.
Andrew Giaquinto is the district’s business manager. hHe presented the options to the board.
He says a contingency budget would be devastating.
“Things that aren’t mandated, could go, sports, field trips, kindergarten, they could go. They could stay if you find it in other areas but you’ve gotta maintain your core; reading, writing, and arithmetic and things like that you know. So, it’s a tough thing for boards,” he said.
Carbone says she experienced a contingency budget once before.
“It was absolutely horrible, I mean we had to get rid of field trips, we had to get rid of late buses, couldn’t order supplies couldn’t buy any equipment, can’t let people use the buildings free of charge like we use now. The drama club would have to pay for anything that’s after school. Athletics, we had to get rid of some of our athletic teams,” she said.
Now, board members are deciding on a new budget to put before voters on June 17th.
The board is meeting tonight at 7 p.m. in the Middle School cafeteria to make a final decision.
If the budget fails again, the board must adopt a contingency budget.
