Magic Numbers: School Budget to Come In Under Tax Cap

Gone are the days of the 5% school tax increase. The proposed Scarsdale School budget for 2016-17 will come in below the tax cap. The $150,207,366 budget is $2.1 million higher than the 2015-16 school budget, but will only cause a .63% increase to tax payers, which is below the adjusted tax cap of .81%.

According to School Superintendent Thomas Hagerman and School Board President Lee Maude, planning the budget was a collaborative process between the administration and the school board. Commenting at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale on Tuesday March 29, Board member Bill Natbony commented, "It's a refreshing process .... we are all on one team."

Though the tax increase is low, the budget includes funds for new staff, new initiatives and improvements to district facilities.

What went into reducing the budget increase? Factors included decreases in the budget for utilities and the phone system, retirements of longtime teachers and administrators and lower contributions to benefit and retirement plans. The district's contribution to the Employee Retirement System will go down from 18.12% of salary in in 2015-16 to approximately 15% and contributions to the Teachers' Retirement System will go down 11.6%, from 13.26% in 2015-16 to 11.72% next year. The decreases will save the district $476,319 and are a result of more favorable investment returns for the funds.

Staffing

Though the school population is estimated to go down by 6 students from 4,808 to 4,802, additional teachers and staff will be hired.

Here's the breakdown:

2 new elementary school teachers to accommodate enrollment changes
1 new teacher for elementary school language instruction
1 world language teacher at the middle school
1 pre-engineering teacher to support the new STEAM curriculum at the high school
1 special education teacher, a psychologist and an aide to staff a new program for students with emotional disabilities at the high school.
1 physical education teacher at the high school
.2 position to teach English as a new language.

Overall, there will be a total of 10.4 new additions to the professional staff, with 8.8 teachers. The budget shows that the 8.8 new teachers will cost the district $913,000 or $103,750 each. In addition to the new additions, the district will need to replace19 members of the professional staff who have announced their retirements at the end of the school year. The new emotional disabilities program is expected to allow more students to receive services at the school rather than go outside.

Plant Improvements

The total budget for plant improvements is $2,620,240 and includes the following projects for the 2016-17 school year:

Edgewood
Repair of stairs at southwest entrance
Upgrade of the fire alarm system

Middle School
Replacement of the bleachers
Upgrades to the music room that were not funded by the bond offering

Bus Depot: Replace fencing and repave parking area

District wide repaving, roofing and masonry work

Here is a chart of the costs: (page 30)

The district is also planning a major renovation at the high school and several other district schools to be funded by an $18.2 million bond that was approved by the community in December 2014. Additional funding will come from the Scarsdale Schools Foundation who is seeking to raise $2.6 mm for a Design Lab and Fitness Center at SHS. The district is still waiting for approvals from the NYS Education Department to begin the construction, but hopes to start this summer. According to a report from Ass't Superintendent Stuart Mattey, some of the projects in the original scope of work will be deferred or cut. He said, "Because preliminary bids for these projects have come back over budget, some smaller pieces of the projects had to be scaled back or deferred, including auditorium and kitchen renovations and receiving area reconfiguration at the High School, music room renovations at the Middle School, and a portion of the Heathcote renovation."

Here are some other items included in the proposed 2016-17 school budget:

• $400,772 in special funding for staff and curricular development for program improvement
• $50,000 for the Center for Innovation
• $275,410 for Professional Development
• $60,000 for sustainability initiatives and school gardens.

Funding for the Teen Center is maintained at $65,000.

Fund Balance, Reserves and Surplus

For those who are concerned about the undesignated fund balance, it is projected to be close to the state maximum level of 4% or $3.75 million. The fund balance is used for "protection against unanticipated deficits from the self-insured health plan, and an additional $1.65 million infusion into the tax certiorari reserve to insulate the District against a high number of potential tax certiorari proceedings." In past budget seasons, the district was challenged by some who thought the reserves were too high. However, Ass't Superintendent Mattey reported that this year the district received a letter from a rating agency expressing concern about the level of reserves, so Scarsdale is watching it closely.

And following a decision from the Governor, Scarsdale once again can maintain a Health Insurance Reserve for the district's self-insured health plan. That will be funded at $3.75 million. An analysis included in the budget shows that the self-insured plan has saved the district an estimated $8,000,904 over the Empire Plan over the last five years. See page 139 of the budget.

$1.1 million in surplus funds from the 2015-16 budget will assigned as revenue in 2016-17 to reduce a tax increase.

The entire budget can be reviewed here.

Mark your calendars to remember to vote on Tuesday May 17th.