Edgemont Grapples With Challenging School Budget

Edgemont's December 13th Board of Education meeting was packed with residents, teachers, parents and students who turned out to learn about next year's school budget and how the NYS tax levy cap will impact the schools. A number of students spoke very passionately and asked that the BOE not cut programs at the schools, especially electives that they were planning to take during their senior year.

Assistant Superintendent Sue Shirken shared some new information that will affect the tax-cap formula, but many variables are still undetermined at this point such as the pension plan and insurance premium increases. The three principals, Dr. Barry Friedman (Junior/Senior High School), Dr. Ed Kennedy (Seely Place) and Ms. Jen Allen ( Greenville) presented recommendations intended to trim costs without harming the quality of an Edgemont education. Everyone is working together to figure out the best way "to do more with less."

Some of the recommendations at the high school level included increasing class sizes especially for electives and the honors/AP courses, eliminating Study Skills for Success class, eliminating some of the English and Social Studies electives, and eliminating the overnight 9th grade camp trip to Frost Valley every winter. The Science Scholars program would start in 10th grade (it currently starts in 9th grade) and there would be a re-structuring in the A-school. Also, certain electives would only be offered every other year. Some residents expressed concerns that the English curriculum would be impacted negatively if electives were cut (i.e. Modern American Literature and Speech). Dr. Friedman explained that there would be a new English 12 class that would replace the cut electives. This new class would combine parts from those electives.

At the elementary schools, the strings consultant appears to be saved much to the relief of the approximately 30 parents that had shown up to support the strings program but the percussion and brass music consultants will most likely be cut. The popular Washington DC (Greenville 5th grade) and Philadelphia (Seely 5th grade) trips are safe for now but 6th grade camp may be gone after this June. The principals also talked of decreasing teacher aides' hours and perhaps decreasing the Physical Education staffing by reorganizing how staff are used at the three schools. But this will not result in any change in the amount of PE that students receive.

Several parents asked about the possibility of a 60% vote override. One parent, whose children have already graduated from the high school, spoke in support of the superior Edgemont education that her children had received while in the schools. She said she encouraged the BOE to try for the override and not cut programs for the students. The BOE has not made any final decision yet and has said that they will consider all possibilities. They also reemphasized that there are no final decisions regarding any cuts in programs at this point. Right now there is a $1.8 million dollar budget gap to fill if the Board elects to stay within the lax levy cap and maintain all existing programs and services. The proposed cuts discussed by the building principals do not add up to a $1.8 million dollar savings so more cuts in various areas (perhaps in sports) will be discussed during upcoming BOE meetings. This month the administration will also have final numbers for the pension plan and insurance premium increases and these two numbers will help with determining the final budget gap, which will hopefully be substantially less than the current projection of $1.8 million.

Superintendent Nancy Taddiken, acknowledge that "this is a stressful time," and spoke about a superintendents group that has been working together to petition Albany for mandate relief, especially in the area of pensions. She will send a letter to the PTA and PTSA to encourage everyone to petition Albany for mandate relief. However, these discussions on state mandate relief will not result in any changes that will affect the 2012-2013 budget cycle. The next two BOE meetings are on Tuesday, January 10th and Tuesday, January 24th (both start at 8:15 pm in the high school's LGI room). Once again, everyone is encouraged to attend the meetings to learn about the upcoming budget and voice their concerns. Once the budget is adopted in April, changes cannot be made, so now is the time to ask questions and express opinions.