With educational funding for the 2024-25 school year through the state still uncertain, the New Paltz Central School District (NPCSD) isn’t waiting for the governor and legislature to figure out their own plans. At a meeting of the board of education last week, trustees tentatively settled on a spending plan for three different scenarios.
Earlier this year, New York Governor Kathy Hochul released her draft executive budget proposal for 2024-25, including state aid runs for public school districts. All 673 school districts in New York would receive less foundation aid than expected under Hochul’s plan, with around half likely to receive cuts of varying degrees. While foundation aid would rise by around $500 million under the executive budget draft, changes in the formula means that’s around $420 million less than anticipated, particularly as the aid package was fully funded last year. The proposed changes center around the longstanding “Save Harmless” policy, which was designed to ensure districts don’t see a reduction in foundation aid from the previous year, even when their enrollment declines.
But there is hope: Statewide bipartisan opposition to the proposed changes to the foundation aid formula has been widespread, particularly as federal COVID-19 aid runs out later this year.
“The legislature has been very, very clear: They don’t agree with the governor,” said NPCSD Superintendent Stephen Gratto during the district budget forum held on Thursday, March 20. “They want the governor to reach an agreement with them that that will give more money to schools. And the fact that the Senate and the Assembly are both saying the same thing, is a good sign. They’re united. Hopefully the governor will listen.”
Under the governor’s draft budget, New Paltz would lose $414,335 in state aid, including their decrease in foundation aid and the end of building aid for a former facilities project. Stopping short of calling it a doomsday scenario, this is one of three possibilities the NPCSD is preparing for. The other two include either the return of the anticipated foundation aid, or a three-percent increase, as called for in the legislature’s “one house” budget response.
But first, a look at where the NPCSD stands heading into 2024-25: The district’s anticipated expenses for next year are $75,505,639, which even after the school board approved putting $2.2 million of fund balance toward the budget leaves them $2,100,968 short. Later, the fund balance total was raised to $2.315 million.
At last week’s meeting, trustees approved a series of reductions totaling $1,875,968, preserving programs while eliminating over a dozen positions, more than half of those through attrition. The lost positions include a floating nurse, a pre-K teacher and aide, two social workers, a substance abuse counselor, a librarian, an athletic trainer and others.
The school board did pull back one social worker position from the list of recommended eliminations, which school officials said will cost around $110,000. Keeping the social worker position followed pleas from several members of the public — including students — earlier in the meeting.
“Not only do I regularly visit the social workers throughout the week, I also have many friends who do as well,” said Willa Ashton, a New Paltz High School sophomore. “Taking away some of our valued social workers would have a wide range of effects on the student’s mental health. Some students aren’t able to access the same kind of mental health support at home as they do at school. This doesn’t just affect their mood, it affects their grades, their motivation and both their physical and social health … While the removal of the entire social work department isn’t threatened as a whole, taking away a trusted adult in the school environment that kids have formed bonds with could have a huge negative mental effect on them. Some students would have to work through the difficult process of rebuilding their trust with another person, and some kids may choose to not continue to seek out mental health therapy or mental support at all, even if they really need it.”
The second budget scenario, with the $116,000 foundation aid returned, would include using the same amount of fund balance, would allocate $88,000 for out of district special education placements and would earmark the remaining $28,000 to replace some eliminated items.
The third budget scenario, which includes an additional $333,000 in foundation aid as suggested by the legislature, would reduce the use of the fund balance from $2.315 million to $1.982 million.
The state budget is due on Monday, April 1, though district officials said they won’t be surprised if it’s late.
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