Like other districts across New York State, the Kingston City School District (KCSD) isn’t waiting around for the state budget to be finalized before figuring out its own spending plan for the 2024-25 school year.
In a presentation to the school board last week, officials shared details of a preliminary rollover $236.31 million spending proposal that, if the district stayed below the threshold of its 3.26 percent maximum allowable tax levy increase, would see them short $9.8 million, or over $14.2 million if they maintained all positions created using federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, which run out this September.
Assistant superintendent for business Sharifa Carbon noted that the KCSD is only susceptible to one of two potential school funding changes governor Kathy Hochul is pushing for, but it could hit hard. The first, known as “Hold Harmless,” guarantees school districts don’t receive less foundation aid than in years past. Over half of the school districts in New York, including most in Ulster County, would see their foundation aid drop if Hochul removes Hold Harmless.
“Fortunately for Kingston, we didn’t fall in that bucket,” Carbon said. “However, the game changing proposal that was put in the executive budget is substituting current CPI, which is inflation, consumer price index … with actual inflation with a ten-year adjusted average. And that adjusted average takes out the outliers, takes out the highest and the lowest, so it’s actually an adjusted ten-year average, which is very much a game changer for every single school district in the state of New York. It literally changes the formula used to calculate foundation aid.”
For Kingston, that could mean a lost off just under $1 million in state aid this year.
“Now this is just one year after the state finally enacted a law that the foundation aid formula would run as prescribed by law and be fully funded,” Carbon said.
As is often the case this time of year, there is hope. Traditionally, the governor’s budget proposal is countered by the state legislature, a negotiation that often yields dividends for school districts. But while the KCSD is hoping for the best, they’re anticipating the worst. District Superintendent Paul Padalino has been closely monitoring the conversation at the state level, and he’s unsure of how it’s going to play out.
“My sense of it from the meetings and the work that I’ve been doing and the people I’ve been talking to, my sense of it is, I think there’s gonna be a little bit of a battle about it,” Padalino said. “The governor seems to be very steadfast in her feelings that this is the formula and this is how it should be applied, whether it be the Hold Harmless that is what a lot of our neighbors are very upset about, which we’re lucky not to be in that situation, or it is the change in the CPI and that calculation.”
Padalino said Hochul’s position regarding foundation aid is particularly egregious given that not only are school districts about to lose ARPA funding, but after years of unfulfilled hope, foundation aid was only just firing on all cylinders.
“The governor seems to be very committed to it after making a commitment last year that we’re going to fully fund the formula,” he said. “A lot of the assembly members and the senators that I’ve been in meetings with and heard from, they’re feeling like this all needs to be changed, like this isn’t gonna fly. There’s going to be some battling and probably some horse trading that goes on, but I don’t think that Governor Hochul is going to back down easily on this education part of budget. We can hope, I guess.”
The state budget was due on Monday, April 1, and a week later many of the battles Padalino referred to are still being fought. Not exactly a week later, because the Assembly took Monday, April 8 off to allow its members to view the solar eclipse from their home districts.
But there was hope late last week that the education funding discussion isn’t going to hold up the state budget any longer and could be tabled until next year, giving school districts a bit of breathing room.
“I’m giving everybody the notice, the warning that they all ask for,” Hochul said in a press conference on Thursday, April 4, one day after the KCSD school board meeting. “There will be a different formula. And I’m just deciding with the leaders how that mechanism will work.”
That could be good news for the KCSD, at least a bit. While the budget presentation was light on details, officials did share that they didn’t feel the district would have to lay off any employees to bridge the deficit gap.
Further details are expected to be revealed at a special meeting of the Board of Education on Wednesday, April 10. The KCSD’s regular meeting schedule puts the next meeting on Wednesday, April 17, one day after school districts are required to vote to adopt their 2024-25 spending plans.
Kingston City School District hosts career and job fair
The Kingston City School District will hold its inaugural career and job fair on Monday, April 15 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Kate Walton Field House, 403 Broadway in Kingston. This event aims to provide opportunities for students and community members to explore various career paths, connect with professionals, gather insights into different industries and quite possibly walk away with a new job.
Join the family! 
