School Budget Woes

A $647,000 decrease in the assessed values of village properties will have an impact on the school budget for 2010-2011. The Village of Scarsdale received an unprecedented number of tax appeals from property owners last year; 500 grievances in all, which according to Village Manager Al Gatta, was double the number from the prior year. This decrease in anticipated tax revenues will cause a loss of $400,000 to the projected school budget and necessitate a raise in the tax increase to cover the school budget.

The School Board had previously announced an estimated 2.93% increase in school taxes for Scarsdale residents and this new development will mean that the Board would have to add on an additional .36% increase to fund the budget, bringing the total to 3.29%. Therefore according to School Board President Barbara Kemp, the Board will now look at three options:

1) Further cuts to the budget
2) Increased use of reserve funds
3) A school tax increase of over 3%

The decrease in the tax base was disappointing news for the Board, the administration and the community as everyone had worked hard to formulate a budget that would maintain programs and small class sizes without unduly increasing taxes. Concessions from the Scarsdale Teacher’s Association had allowed the administration and the Board to keep increases below 3%, a level that the community seemed to deem palatable.

With this new twist, the administration and the Board will be forced to revisit some difficult decisions.

Kemp also announced that the Board would form an Exploratory Revenue Committee to investigate alternative sources of revenue for Scarsdale Schools. The committee will be staffed with representatives from the School Board, parents of Scarsdale students and members of the community at large. The Scarsdale League of Women Voters undertook a study of School Foundations and Kemp hopes to have that study to consider as well.

In other news, the Board met with parents of High School students before the start of the March 17th meeting. Parents expressed concern about a decrease in the size of the high school faculty, as five positions have been left unfilled. Kemp let parents know that until students sign up for classes for next term, it will be difficult to assess the impact of these staff vacancies.

The administration has recommended changing kindergarten to a full-time program, and eliminating the callback schedule. The Board supports this move and at the meeting the issue was hotly debated. The move to a full day program would save the district $50,000 in fees for busing and give every child a full afternoon at school. In support of this change, Superintendant Michael McGill said that the longer day would relieve a packed schedule, give children time to play and socialize and get the kindergarten classes and teachers in sync with the rest of the school. With more hours of school time, McGill did feel that teachers could still structure small group learning sessions with students, especially when their classmates were at specials. Additional federal funds would be available to pay for more aid time in the classes as well.

Parents came out to voice their opinions for and against. Skeptical parents questioned the move, as there were no study results to compare the two programs. Some felt that callback days were valuable as it afforded teachers the opportunity to give individual attention to students. Others wanted their children out of school early during the week for free play and were concerned about the transition from nursery school to a full-day program. The administration will be meeting with kindergarten teachers this week and will hold small community meetings to continue the discussions with parents about the new format.

The community is invited to another School Budget Study Session on Thursday April 8 at 8 pm.