League Reviews Scarsdale School Budget

The Scarsdale School Board and Administration continued their series of meetings to inform the community about the upcoming 2012-13 school budget with a session with the Scarsdale League of Women Voters on Monday morning January 23rd.

The Board is seeking feedback from residents on the budget, in an effort to decide whether to propose a budget that stays within the N.Y.S. mandated 2% cap or to put forth a budget that exceeds that increase in the hope that it will be passed by more than 70% of voters on May 15th.

The way the law is written, if the community fails to approve a budget that exceeds the cap by 70%, the Board can propose another budget to be voted on in June. If that fails to pass by 60% then the district would be forced to live within this year’s budget – at a 0% increase.

Responding to questions posed by the League, Assistant School Superintendent Linda Purvis discussed capitol expenditures needed to maintain the District’s 1,000,000+ square feet of space. Though some of this space is relatively new, other portions of the schools were built at the turn of the century and require extensive maintenance, updating and care. Among the most pressing needs are roof work, heating and renovations to a staircase at the Scarsdale Middle School. Purvis reported that the district spends an estimated $300,000- $400,000 per year fixing roofs and leaks. There is currently $1,000,000 in the budget for capitol projects which pays for repairs and forestalls bigger infrastructure problems. A five-year building survey done last year showed that $3.9 mm would be needed to correct all of the District’s building issues.

But there is far more that could be done if finances allowed.

Purvis and Dr. McGill discussed the need for Scarsdale to stay on the leading edge – an explored how the current physical plant could be redesigned to accommodate new trends in learning. For instance, at the high school students often meet in groups to work on projects and teachers schedule one-on-one sessions with students to provide help and feedback. The Scarsdale schools are now designed for classes of twenty-five students with a teacher in the front. More forward-thinking institutions provide large open spaces that are flexible and allow for a variety of teaching styles including collaborative learning, conferencing and online learning experiences.

With challenging schools budgets, funds to renovate have been cut preventing any redesign of school facilities.

Asked about program changes for next year, McGill responded that he does not foresee and changes in the Mandarin program. The Mandarin teacher reports that students are making good progress in Mandarin that more sections may need to be added down the road.

Speaking about Foreign Language for Elementary Students (FLES) McGill reported that the middle school teachers now have students who began foreign language instruction in elementary school and report that these kids are about one year ahead in their learning and speaking confidence.

For the critical and creative thinking initiative, additional funding is not required. The district is in the process of benchmarking Scarsdale students’ work against the work of high-performing students overseas. As far McGill knows, Scarsdale is the only district in the country that is looking at the quality of student work at an international level in a systematic way. The district is also developing their own assessments of students’ critical and creative work.

Other initiatives include:

• Examining how the Senior Options program can be a more coherent learning experience at SHS.
• Expansion of work on human rights and technology at the Scarsdale Middle School
• Continuing to work on improving science education at the elementary level.

Asked how the administration would close the $1.5 million budget gap if the Board decides to keep the budget increase below 2%, McGill outlined how they would proceed:

He said, “We will try to reduce expenses without harming the program,” which was

“much easier four years ago than it is today, as there is not a lot of fluff in the current school budget.” Currently, McGill said, “there is very little wiggle room to make a meaningful financial impact without hurting certain kids.”

Some of the budget lines that would be examined were:

• Funding for the Scarsdale Teen Center
• Funding for Scarsdale and Edgemont Family Counseling
• Home pick for non-public school students who are transported out of the district. (Transportation could be rearranged to require students to meet at bus stops rather than have pick up at their homes.)
• Class size requirements
• Third grade musical instrument instruction

The Scarsdale School Board will hold two Budget Study Sessions on February 6 and February 8 at 6:30 pm in Rooms 170-172 at Scarsdale High School.

(Pictured at top: -- Top row: Marylou Green, Superintendent Michael McGill, Jill Scharf, Bottom row: School Board Member Suzanne Seiden, School Board President Jill Spieler, Ass't School Superintendent Linda Purvis) Photo credit: Sara Werder