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General News: Public to Vote on $58.6 Million Budget
May 13, 2011
By Charlie B. Scirbona
The Cornwall Board of Education presented its finalized budget during the Monday work session in front of a sparse audience. Voting on the budget, and for two members of the school board, runs from 6 am to 9 pm on Tuesday, May 17.
The budget, which was adopted April 18, totals $58.6 million and has an estimated tax levy increase of 5.32 percent. In monetary terms, this would mean an extra $263 a year in school tax for a home worth $250,000, $368 a year for a home worth $350,000; and an extra $473 a year for a home worth $450,000. Assistant Superintendant for Business, Harvey Sotland, said that these numbers are only estimates right now because tax assessments are not done until the summer.
Classes Cut from New Budgets
On a school level, this year’s budget will eliminate one section of kindergarten and fifth grade, one full-time physical education teacher in the high school and the two full-time computer teachers and a computer teaching assistant, which will effectively end computer classes in the elementary school. The elementary schools will also lose all extra curricular activities with the proposed budget.
The district will also be reducing the assistant coaching positions, athletic and district-wide supplies and athletic events, as well as reduce the budget for modified sports.
State Aid, Contractual Increases
Much of the presentation was bent on explaining how the board got to these decisions. Several factors played a part in this year’s budget, however Sotland pointed to a decrease in state aid of more than $1 million and contractual increases for salary and retirement benefits as key factors.
District superintendent Timothy Rehm pointed out that Cornwall is the third lowest in cost-per-pupil among the 60 neighboring school districts. The two districts with the lowest cost-per-pupil are Pine Bush and Wappingers Falls.
Superintendent Defends Administration Structure
Rehm also hoped to quell the idea that the district is administration heavy. He explained that the superintendents shares the responsibilities of the human resources and personnel department and that other personnel fill in as program directors instead of hiring people specifically for those jobs.
He also pointed to an extra $138,769 in state funds the district is receiving because it was named as an administratively efficient district.
“What we have now is a basic, fundamental (education) structure,” said Rehm.
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