Plattsburgh City School Board approves budget

By Ashleigh Livingston
“We have a budget, ladies and gentlemen,” said Plattsburgh board of education President Clayton Morris, to the small crowd gathered at the former Duken Elementary School gym for the board of education meeting on Thursday, April 8. Morris’ statement immediately followed the board’s unanimous acceptance of a $ 37,519,424 budget, which carries a projected tax levy of 2.45 percent and calls for the elimination of 13.25 positions, as well as, both the summer school and GED programs.
While the elimination of over 13 positions is alarming to some, especially when it occurs during a time when unemployment rates are staggering and lack of government funding is forcing many public school systems to cut enrichment programs, the positions being cut within Plattsburgh’s city school district may not directly result in layoffs nor in the loss of programming, James “Jake” Short, superintendent of Plattsburgh city schools says.
“The vast majority of those [eliminations] are being done through attrition, people retiring that we are not replacing,” he says. “We’re not exactly clear on how we’re going to shuffle everybody around, but basically 13.25 positions are being pulled out, and the principals can already see within the master schedule how we can consolidate and not lose any programs for students.”
Two of the districts teachers may be “recycled” into teaching assistants, Short says, which would be a reduction in pay for those individuals; however, it would allow them to remain employed by the district.
Although the budget preserves all of the district’s enrichment programs, including the Odyssey program and the orchestra, both the summer school and district-run GED programs are being eliminated, at least for now.
Since no students graduated during summer school last year and, only one or two students did the year before, Short says he is not concerned about the program’s elimination hindering students from graduating in the short term; however, he thinks the long term effects could be problematic.
“The effect is more a problem, in my opinion, if the cut remains for two and three years out. If we make it a one year hiatus, the effect is fairly minimal.”
As for the GED program, Short says about 64 percent of students who participated in the program passed the GED exam, which he does not consider to be a high success rate. This and the fact that cutting the program could save the district about $30,000 made the program easier to eliminate, he says.
Former students seeking a GED in PLattsburgh may be able to acquire one through BOCES or CV-TEC; although, the BOCES GED program availability is based on enrollment numbers and is sometimes not offered, and the CV-TEC GED program is intended for adult learners.
Cathy Snow, program manager of the CV-TEC adult literacy and GED programs says, “Under our current funding, CV-TEC is only allowed to provide GED services for students under the age of 19 who meet the following requirements: they have been officially dropped out of school for one year or their 9th grade class has graduated. The majority of students who are 18 do not meet these qualifications.”
Snow calls the loss of the district-run GED program “unfortunate,” and says that she is not certain at this time weather CV-TEC will be able to accommodate individuals displaced by the program’s elimination. She says CV-TEC administrative meetings are planned to discuss the matter.
Short says that city school students have been warned about the elimination of both the summer school and GED programs and have been advised to “buckle down” on their school work because alternatives are not as available.
“There is a part of [making alternatives less available] that I kind of like because I think when you make people rise to the occasion, the majority will, but we’re not so closed minded to think that there’s [not] going to be a few students that it just is completely unrealistic to expect that [from], and we want to at least have a back door or a way to try and help them if we can,” he says.
Though the board of education approved the school budget for next year, which is up slightly from this year’s budget of $37,484,438, local tax payers will have the final say in whether the budget is accepted when they vote on it in May.
If the budget is passed, the board will then have the responsibility of setting the tax levy in July, which is projected at 2.45 percent. This would mean a median tax increase of $72.27 before STAR exemptions, according to data from the city assessor’s office; however, Short says that the projected levy is really a worst case scenario and will depend on the amount of state aid the district receives.
“There’s a pretty strong feeling right now that we’ll receive a little bit more state aid. Some of the reduction that has been reported to us will probably be restored, not all of it, but maybe half, and if half of it is, the board will very likely go back and look at reducing the tax levy,” he says.
Local tax payer and former board of education member, Dale Dowdle, says that he feels the tax levy is a minimal increase, and he plans to vote in favor of the budget; although, he says he is disappointed about decreased enrollment at the high school, and he plans to submit his concerns to the board in a written comment card, which is made available to voters at the polls.
Fred Wachtmeister, a current member of the board of education says that although some people have addressed the board with tax concerns, the majority of tax payers seem supportive of raising taxes in order to preserve enrichment programs.
“How that translates into votes,” he says “is anybody’s guess.”
While the city’s school budget vote has traditionally suffered from low voter turnout (about 400 to 500 voters, says Wachtmeister), Short thinks maybe this year will bring out more voters than usual who are in favor of keeping special programming and who generally take it for granted that the budget always passes.