Scarsdale Schools 2016-17 Budget Season Begins

The Board of Education (BOE) kicked off its annual series of budget study sessions on February 8 reviewing proposed staff additions as well as transportation and debt service costs in the budget. Stuart Mattey, Assistant Superintendent for Business, led the presentations on these topics with no surprises as staffing requests have been discussed extensively at previous meetings and transportation and debt services costs are relatively fixed as compared to other areas of the budget. An overview the entire 2016-2017 proposed budget (including information about tax impact) was not introduced and is planned for the next meeting on February 24.

The meeting began with a review of the staffing requests including:

• 2 new hires for Special Education to establish an emotional disabilities support program at the high school.

• 1.6 new hires for World Languages. This includes a Mandarin teacher for the middle school, but if there are not the requisite numbers of 6th grade students signing up for this language the number of new hires in World Language will be reduced.

• 1 STEAM teacher in the high school.

Also included is a physical education teacher for the second half of next year, changes/additions to support in the Technology, Curriculum and Physical Education offices as well as placeholders for new hires to adhere to compliance with District guidelines with regard to class size for a grand total of 8.8 full time equivalents at a cost of approximately $1M. Dr. Hagerman stated that new staffing went through several iterations and began with requests for 14 new positions and was reduced to this number. Although these requests have been discussed at previous meetings, the Administration was seeking final concurrence from the Board that they should be included in the first draft of the budget. Board members spoke individually and all agreed to move forward with these personnel recommendations.

Mattey then turned to the areas of transportation and debt service. When discussing transportation he highlighted that there will be no changes to the District busing policies. Some purchases of new vehicles were included to maintain a healthy fleet. The budget-to-budget increase in transportation is just over 1% ($47,378), reflecting transfers of some transportation related utility expenses into the transportation budget (in order to generate State aid). Also, there is no request for a transportation efficiency study as was raised as a possibility during the discussions of expanding District bus service earlier in the school year. Mattey explained that the department has decided to do internal reviews and possibly include an outside study for 2017-2018.

Debt service obligations require a budget-to-budget increase of less than 1% ($5881) and the lease purchase programs, which support the District's technology plan such as Chromebooks and iPads in the classrooms, require a budget-to-budget increase of 5.82% ($122,589). The detailed technology plan will be presented on February 29.

Mattey presented the following slide to illustrate the District's debt position going forward. There is a significant drop in the year 2020 that will likely be filled by a new very large bond issue in the 2016-2017 timeframe to address significant facilities concerns such as the Greenacres School and other needs through out the District identified by the building survey studies.

The budget meeting calendar is shown below. The public is encouraged to attend all budget meetings and submit questions to the BOE. There will be a designated section on the District website for all budget related presentations and back up documentation including the Board's written responses to questions from the community.

View the meeting in its entirety on the BOE's Video-on-Demand website.