Faced with overcoming a nearly $5 million deficit, the New Paltz Central School District’s (NPCSD) Board of Education is hoping district officials can get creative in an effort to balance a nearly $70 million 2023-24 budget with minimal staffing reductions. But in order to do that, they may have to ask the public to support a spending plan that breaks the state’s tax levy limit.
“I have no fear of going over the tax cap: Zero fear,” said School Board member Teresa Thompson during a presentation before the School Board held on Wednesday, March 15. “I will gamble on the New Paltz community 100 percent.”
The NPCSD was dealt a difficult hand ahead of preparing their next budget. For a start, they were dealt one of the lowest tax levy limits in the area, just 1.23 percent, or $579,214, roughly one-third of what districts like Kingston, Saugerties and Onteora were allowed through the state’s complex calculations.
“We get most of our money from our taxpayers and we appreciate the taxpayers very much,” said Superintendent Stephen Gratto. “We don’t get much from the state cause we are considered to be a wealthy district and a wealthy community, so we must rely on our taxpayers. And each year the state tells us how much money we can take from the taxpayers. This year, it is mighty small.”
School districts are allowed to seek a higher tax levy increase than their state cap, but rather than a simple majority, they must achieve a supermajority of 60 percent or higher for their budget to pass.
This is coming at an inopportune time for the NPCSD. Like school districts across the country, New Paltz will have to have spent its federal CoronavirusResponse and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act funding by September of this year. It has until September 2024 to spend its American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act funding. Much of the funding from both programs was required to be spent on “learning loss” during the pandemic. Learning loss was able to be addressed with after-school or extended day activities, summer learning or enrichment, or extended school year. Some focus of learning loss spending was intended to consider underrepresented student subgroups, including but not limited to children from low-income families, children with disabilities, English learners, homeless children and foster children.
The district is also in the midst of a decline in student enrollment that began over two decades ago and has yet to cease. New Paltz saw a modest decline between 2000-01 and 2010-11 from 2,391 to 2,245. But the drop accelerated over the next decade, particularly in recent years, falling to 1,773 in the 2022-23 school year. School officials said enrollment is projected to fall to 1,721 in 2023-24.
Gratto presented a draft budget that included cuts in BOCES services ($436,000); consultants ($110,000); staff development ($170,400); social and emotional support ($30,000); substitutes and enrichment ($127,000); a part time social and emotional learning coordinator ($90,673); three social workers ($325,000); two retiring high school teaching positions ($308,000); five special education teachers ($500,000); a language teacher ($122,000); four elementary sections ($422,000) and two aides ($81,000).
But even with all those reductions, the budget would still be short of making up the deficit by $1.855 million, which the superintendent’s draft budget suggested could be achieved using the district’s fund balance.
“Whatever we do, we have to make up the deficit because we must balance the budget,” Gratto said. He added that considering cutting jobs was a difficult decision, but one which the district must consider.
“I do want to make sure you understand that the (School) Board and I realize that although I’m throwing a lot of numbers around, I’m actually speaking about real people,” he said. “We have all these people who care about the district and the kids in the district. And here we are cutting people. So we do know that these are real people and we’re sorry that we’re in this situation.”
Gratto’s presentation indicated that dropping its social workers from seven to four would put New Paltz back to pre-2021-22 levels. But for many of the people attending the meeting, the logic isn’t airtight. Over 20 people spoke during the public hearing, all but a few specifically imploring the School Board to keep its social workers, who they say remain as important as ever.
“We have families that have crossed the sea, risked their lives to come to the United States, and have chosen to settle here in New Paltz,” said Meredith Oppenheimer, a 4th grade teacher at Lenape Elementary School, and the parent of a 3rd grader in the district. “I don’t know where we would be without an ENL social worker. Let’s continue to build bridges toward equity and understanding for all children.”
One of the district’s social workers, Angela Perez, said that though the pandemic has been deemed over, their role hasn’t diminished.
“You’re not just removing us, you’re removing the basic support that is grounding our students,” Perez said. “We have relationships not only with our students, but with our teachers, with our families, with our friends. Before you make a decision to cut the social worker (position), think about the long-term effect.”
Thompson agreed.
“Bottom line, we are better than this,” she said. “This isn’t really a representation of who we are, who we’ve been, what I’d like to see moving forward.”
The School Board considered asking for further reductions in outside funding through Astor Services, using $1 million in fund balance, and asking for a 3.36 tax levy increase, which would trigger the need for support from a supermajority at the polls. With an eye on adopting the 2023-24 budget at their meeting on Wednesday, March 29, school officials are planning to come back with suggested revisions.
But cutting what are considered key positions wasn’t the only notion weighing heavily on trustees; asking the public for more is also not considered a painless solution.
“It’s really upsetting that we’re talking about the only way to save critical positions is to put it on the taxpayers,” said board member Bianca Tanis. “I don’t disagree with having to go over the tax cap, but we also have to be mindful that not everybody can afford it. There’s people living on fixed incomes, and we can’t ignore that.”
School Board Vice-President Matthew Williams said the district needed to try and do more than just kick the problem down the road.
“Right now we’re positioning ourselves to be in the same spot one year from now having the same conversations unless…what?” Williams said.
The district’s 2023-24 budget will go before the public on Tuesday, May 16.
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