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young coopers hawk img 5974-webThe Enterprise — James E. Gardner
On the lookout: This Cooper’s hawk recently perched near the bird feeder at a Knox home, was not looking for sunflower seeds. The strong reddish-orange around its pupil means this bird is a juvenile; the eye turns to full red in adults. The pronounced white in the feathers is another indication of a young bird.

Schools grapple with budget demands

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Published on Friday, 15 February 2013 19:50

At Guilderland Central

By Melissa Hale-Spencer

pict0011-webThe Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Claire Levy, a member of Guilderland’s varsity gymnastics team, tells the school board, of which her mother is a member, about the importance of the sport as her teammates, all dressed in red, the school color, listen. Cutting the gymnastics team would save $11,147. It is one of a long list of possible cuts being considered to close a $2.1 million revenue gap.GUILDERLAND — Varsity gymnasts — more than a dozen girls wearing red shirts — stood before the school board Tuesday night to make a heartfelt plea: Don’t cut our team.

“Our girls consistently place second at sectionals,” said the team’s long-time coach, Brenda Goodknight. “I hope tomorrow we’re able to win.” She added that it is not the ideal preparation to come to a board meeting the night before the sectional championship to beg to save the team.

“Good luck tomorrow,” said the school board president as the girls stepped away from the microphone — a long red line — and returned to their seats.

The gymnastics team is one of more than 70 items on a list of possible cuts for next year. School leaders were asked to come up with 5-percent across-the-board cuts — about $400,000 more than needed to close a $2.1 million revenue gap — to present last week for community feedback.

About 50 people came to Tuesday’s school board meeting as speakers made their views known. The tone was solemn but not hostile as each speaker pled his or her case. At the close of the three-hour meeting, in an impromptu session not on the agenda, board members responded with their own budget priorities. At the end, only two people remained in the gallery.

The superintendent, Marie Wiles, will present her budget on Feb. 28. The board then must adopt a final spending proposal for the 2013-14 school year before the budget goes to public vote on May 21.

Cutting the gymnastics team would save $11,147 and only four Suburban Council schools still have varsity gymnastics teams, participants at last week’s budget forum were told. (To learn more, read an in-depth Feb. 7, 2013 story — “GCSD to citizens: ‘What should we cut?’” — online at www.AltamontEnterprise.com, which lists the proposed cuts and the rationale behind them.)

The gymnasts told the school board Tuesday of the opportunities the sport had given them, not just for competition but for everything from fitting into high school to pursuing college goals. Sidney Snyder told of how volunteering to teach at gymnastics camp led to her getting a job. Several mentioned their competition at the state level.

Last year, Guilderland’s team ranked fifth in the state.

There is no modified or junior-varsity gymnastics team at Guilderland, and several of the athletes talked about mentoring younger team members.

Steve Wider, a 2004 Guilderland graduate who serves as assistant coach, told of how the girls set up 100 pounds of equipment before each practice and endure quarter-sized blisters.

“Imagine the courage it takes to be upside down 10 feet in the air,” he said. “Every day, these girls fall over and over again but they always pick themselves up and get it right.”

Coach Goodknight said she had been on Guilderland’s gymnastics team in the 1980s and went on to be captain of the team at the University of Albany, where she earned her bachelor’s degree.

She noted that the team’s booster club had purchased equipment used by the town of Guilderland’s recreational program.

“We are not a struggling program,” Goodknight told the board, noting she has to make cuts every year to keep the team at 16 athletes.

Finally, Lori McCutcheon, the mother of one of the gymnasts, noted how students at Westmere Elementary, where she worked as a substitute teacher, were excited to use the gymnasts’ equipment. The effect of the team goes “beyond those on the roster,” said McCutcheon.

“The older girls take the younger under their wing,” she said, noting the gymnasts are positive role models for young female athletes.

She said that her seventh-grade daughter had learned to set both personal and team goals and had gained athletic skills and confidence by being on the team.

“Please do not cut this wonderful sports program for girls,” McCutcheon concluded. “It’s a legacy and a Guilderland tradition.”

At the end of the night, several of the board members said they supported keeping the gymnastics team. Board President Colleen O’Connell said she would e-mail information to the board members, once she hears back from Athletic Director Regan Johnson, on how much of his recommendation was based on the fact only four Suburban Council gymnastic teams remain.

Views on other proposals

Monica Kounter and Elizabeth Bunday urged the board not to outsource physical therapy. At the close of the meeting, the board’s vice president, Gloria Towle-Hilt, said that she thought the “personal relationships” that physical therapists on the staff build with students is important for their progress and that would be lost with outsourcing.

Rose Levy said the change “wouldn’t be much of a savings.” Contracting for physical therapy services would save about $9,000.

Two Westmere kindergarten teachers, Jennifer Krell and Amy McFarren, spoke out against the recommendation to cut eight kindergarten teaching assistants to save $232,200 next year. “Peer interactions are not always safe or appropriate,” said Krell, noting that one person can’t adequately oversee 22 or more kindergarten students.

McFarren calculated that the reduction would total 36,000 lost minutes of help that students need to thrive.

Five board members — Towle-Hilt, Levy, Barbara Fraterrigo, Christine Hayes, and Judy Slack — urged keeping current number of kindergarten teaching assistants.

pict0024-webThe Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Paul Pernacchia tells the school board on Tuesday that he would love to study Italian when he gets to the high school. “When I heard they were to offer Italian in the high school, I was pumped,” said Pernacchia. Two school board members raised concerns about starting a new program.Student Paul Pernacchia spoke with delight that he might be able to study Italian next year. He noted that 50 percent of New York’s population — including his father — has Italian heritage. After learning some basic phrases from his father, he tried teaching himself, which was difficult, he said.

“When I heard they were to offer Italian in the high school, I was pumped,” said Pernacchia.

Two board members were less enthused. O’Connell and Allan Simpson, while not opposed to Italian, worried about starting a new program. In recent years, Guilderland has offered French, Spanish, and German.

When students were polled on their interests, about 60 wanted to study Italian. One section is planned, for which students will be chosen by lottery, said Wiles. Since a current teacher is certified to teach Italian, there would be no added costs for next year.

Fraterrigo said she was “delighted” that Italian would be offered. She recalled, years earlier, when the board received a petition with 700 signatures, requesting Italian be taught.

Fraterrigo, vacationing out of town, participated in the meeting through a computer hook-up. She initiated the board members’ sharing their thoughts on the proposed cuts so that the superintendent would have “a feel from us.”

Wiles said that, as in previous budgets, each item would be weighed to see which is “least damaging” to students. Guilderland, faced with stagnant aid and increasing costs as well as a tax-levy cap last year, has cut about 120 jobs in the last three years.

“There is no magic to it,” said Wiles.

Advisory period

High school math teacher Mark Rudolph spoke passionately to the board about the value of the advisory period that was cut this year.

With class sizes up and teachers pulled in all directions, he said, “This year is the most difficult” in his 15-year career.

pict0010-webThe Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Mark Rudolph, a Guilderland High School math teacher, expresses concerns over the cutting of the advisory period this year, a move which the superintendent estimated saved about $1 million on an $89 million budget. Without the advisory period, Rudolph said, there was no time to ask thought-provoking questions. In the shorter, after-school periods, he said, “I find myself shoveling out information,” often with only about three minutes for each student.The 85-minute advisory period had been part of the high school’s block schedule. Every other day, it allowed students and teachers across the school to be free at the same time so that students could make up work, get extra help, or participate in club activities.

Without the advisory period, Rudolph said, there was no time to ask thought-provoking questions. In the shorter, after-school periods, he said, “I find myself shoveling out information,” often with only about three minutes for each student.

The “cherished” conversations are gone and he hasn’t gotten to know the strengths and weaknesses of his students, he said. Rudolph reported that students say “they feel misplaced” and both students and teachers are frustrated as student-teacher bonds are suffering.

Responding to concerns raised by Rose Levy, the board spent about an hour discussing the advisory period.

Wiles estimated that eliminating the advisory period saved roughly a million dollars. The current district budget is $89 million.

With the elimination of the advisory period, an after-school period was instituted and learning centers were set up for students to get help during study halls.

Levy said that, two weeks ago, she casually asked a teacher how it was going without the advisory period. Levy forwarded many of the e-mails she received on the subject to the other board members, saying that teachers are concerned with students’ struggling. “I didn’t feel anyone was complaining,” said Levy.

She asked if the scheduling change had helped balance class sizes, as predicted, and if it had allowed students to take more courses.

Thomas Lutsic, the high school principal, said the change did help balance class sizes by allowing more scheduling flexibility.

Aaron Sicotte, an assistant principal, said that just over 10 percent of Guilderland High School students this past semester took an eighth course. In years past he said, no one had been able to. “I imagine not a third of our students requested an eighth course,” he said.

Sicotte, echoing Rudolph’s comments, said of cutting the advisory period, “Everybody saw it as a loss. The reality is, we can’t schedule it…without a whole lot more staff.”

He also said, “The reality is we were one of very few schools in the state to have an advisory.” Yet other schools have robust clubs and students working with teachers outside of class, Sicotte said.

“The hard part for us is the transition…There’s serious mourning that’s happening in the school,” he said.

Lutsic said that the high school’s building cabinet is monitoring the situation and exploring alternatives. “We’re open to solutions. We’re open to input,” he said, calling it “a work in progress.”

Learning centers were set up in the high school so that students could get help from teachers, not necessarily their own, during study halls. The math and science learning centers are used “quite a bit,” said Lutsic, and the English and social studies centers not as much.

Levy cited an e-mail from a teacher saying just two students had come to one center all year. “Now they’re sitting there for 80 minutes doing nothing,” she said of teachers, noting time is not being used effectively.

Also, Levy noted, each teacher at a center isn’t equipped to help with every subject so, for example, a student may not be able to get help in biology at the science center if the teacher staffing the center knows only physics.

Lutsic urged “giving it more time.”

Board member Catherine Barber asked if block scheduling — with a few, long periods each day rather than many short ones — is popular among schools.

“It’s a mix,” said Lutsic, noting a schedule like Guilderland’s was most popular in the late 1990s.

Sicotte noted that, in the past four years, Guilderland High School has looked at schedules twice. “There’s no perfect high school schedule,” he said. He also said that Guilderland is “fairly unique” in offering learning centers.

“We’ve got a lot to learn,” he said, noting the cabinet is reluctant to make wholesale changes.

“It wasn’t a choice we wanted to make…If you’re used to driving a luxury car, stepping back to an economy car is difficult,” said Slack. “We have to recognize the realities of where we are…Let’s make the best of what we’ve got.”

Process and philosophy

Two of those addressing the board Tuesday night raised procedural concerns.

pict0006-webThe Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Kerry Dineen, a music teacher at Pine Bush Elementary School, told the school board on Tuesday that she is “very discouraged,” not just with budget cuts but with the way cuts are being made at a “flat 5 percent.” She said that “doesn’t create a level playing field.”Kerry Dineen, a music teacher at Pine Bush Elementary School, said she was “very discouraged,” not just with the cutting but with the way cuts are being made at a “flat 5 percent.”

She said that “doesn’t create a level playing field.”

Dineen called the proposed cuts to kindergarten teaching assistants ridiculous and irresponsible and said, “As a district, we haven’t set priorities.”

Criticizing recent and proposed cuts in music, Dineen, noting research that shows the importance of music education, concluded, “If we were a data-driven school, as we claim to be, we’d be investing in music.”

At the end of the meeting, several board members talked about the importance of music. Lori Herchenhart, instructional supervisor for music, had explained during last week’s forum, that, to come up with the require 5-percent cut, she had wanted to save the teaching posts so she cut equipment, repairs, and conferences for a total savings of about $34,000.

She also proposed cutting a tenth of a post in sixth- and seventh-grade music to save $5,150, and half a post for instrumental lessons at the high school, to save $25,750.

Fraterrigo on Tuesday night commented that it is “short-sighted” to eliminate the budget to repair instruments.

Jennifer Charron praised the recent pops concert, noting such performances are free to the public. “These students are the reason we’re a top music district,” she said.

Towle-Hilt said she is concerned that music has “taken a number of hits.” She said, “It is such a shining star and affects so many kids.”

“What is really valuable in terms of our graduates and where employment is?” asked Barber. She said that math and science would give graduates more options and that the United States is “not stacking up that well” in those fields. “It seems like we’re narrowing options at high levels,” she said.

O’Connell countered that middle-school students don’t get to take accelerated courses in English and social studies like they do in math and science.

“We still need people who speak in public, who can write for websites or something more old-fashioned,” she said.

Timothy Burke addressed the board, saying he was pleased to see such a crowd but it was “almost too late.”

He criticized the recent urgings of Guilderland school leaders to advocate for the district by pressing the governor for more state aid to schools.

“The only solution is not requesting more money,” Burke said. “Other districts need it far more than we do,” he said, naming some that are in “desperate straits.”

Burke said the solution comes down to collective bargaining, compromise, and higher taxes.

He spoke of the “noose collective bargaining has around our neck” and said that temporary concessions can be a “big threat,” dropped at any time.

Referring to the assistant superintendent for human resources presiding over an annual awards ceremony for staff, Burke said at first he thought it was nice she “gives everyone a hug and kiss.” Then, he thought, “Oh, my god, she sits at our bargaining table.”

Burke concluded that going “hat in hand” to the governor is fruitless. “When you ask these kids…to write letters, you send them on a fool’s errand,” he said. Rather, what is needed, Burke said, are concessions “that are real and permanent.”

Soon after, Wiles gave a report to the board on two recent regional gatherings on school funding. The first, on Jan. 31, in East Greenbush, was attended by 1,500 people from 47 school districts, she said, and focused on three things — ending the gap elimination adjustment, which takes money from each district’s aid to balance the state budget; attaining adequate and equitable funds from the state; and securing meaningful mandate relief.

The second meeting, on Monday, in Niskayuna, featured a “how to” approach to achieve those goals, she said.

Wiles concluded, addressing those at the meeting as well as those listening to the broadcast, “If you have not yet written your advocacy letter, do so. It does make a difference.”

At Voorheesville Central

By Tyler Murphy

VOORHEESVILLE —The Voorheesville Board of Education on Monday listened to a preliminary $23 million budget, up 6 percent from this year, while officials warned of fiscal challenges and cuts in the district.

Though it has yet to be approved by the state legislature, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed an executive budget in January with a statewide bump in education spending of 4.4 percent but under the plan the Voorheesville School District would see aid decrease 5.9 percent from the current school year.

A one-time, $248,776 grant received for the current year to convert half-day kindergarten classes to full-day classes, was responsible for a large portion of aid decrease.

While Superintendent Teresa Thayer Snyder said officials knew the non-recurring aid would depress Voorheesville’s budget figures in the coming school year, she voiced concern that state aid in the district overall remained stagnant.

Snyder said Voorheesville’s aid had remained about the same for the last two years, since 2011, while costs have gone up.

Spending up, aid down

The preliminary 2013-14 budget of about $23,170,530 is about 5.95 percent more than this year’s budget of $21,868, 403.

The district’s annual revenue is about 23 percent state aid, 73 percent from local taxes, and about 4 percent from other sources.

Since 2008, Voorheesville has cut 11 full-time teaching positions and seven full-time teaching assistant jobs, while enrollment has grown by 52 students, to 1,175, about 4.4 percent.

“The outlook, if it keeps going this way is bleak. Something people should know is Voorheesville is not unique,” said Assistant Superintendent for Business Gregory Diefenbach. “Unless things change, this is the cliff schools are on. I didn’t get into this profession to be so bleak but we’re on the edge.”

Diefenbach said workers’ compensation and health insurance for employees would increase by 10 percent next year. He also said insurance would increase by about 6 percent; fuel by 12 percent; and spending on some programs would have to increase, such as $40,000 more for special education requirements and $20,000 for transportation, part of which will hire a needed mechanic.

As utilities, health care, retirement, and other expenses increase faster than state aid, schools have had to make up the difference by cutting jobs and programs, reducing salaries, drawing down reserves, or raising taxes.

If Voorheesville made no cuts and attempted to fill next year’s gap through taxes alone, speaking hypothetically, Diefenbach said the district would have to raise the tax levy by 7.58 percent.

“I can’t speak for the board of education, but something like that we wouldn’t even consider it,” said Diefenbach, explaining the figure was meant to illustrate the district’s dilemma.

A 1-percent increase in taxes raises about $156,000 for the district, he said.

A new state law passed last year limits the amount a school district can increase tax levy through a state designed formula; the cap can be surpassed with 60 percent of the public vote.

Though the law has been commonly referred to as “the 2-percent tax-cap law,” said Diefenbach, it’s actually a complicated calculation allowing for exemptions. Though Voorheesville complied with the law in the current year, it still increased taxes by 2.43 percent and the projected tax cap for the 2013-14 year could be as high as 3.8 percent.

“The tax cap has been introduced; this is the second year it’s in place and it has been very problematic,” said Diefenbach.

Unfunded mandates and the GEA

Two of the major challenges facing Voorheesville and many school districts are unfunded mandates and the gap elimination adjustment law.

Unfunded mandates are mandatory state and federal programs local schools must comply with and pay for.

Diefenbach presented to board members a list of dozens of unfunded mandates Voorheesville pays for. The mandates include several audits, performance reviews, record-keeping, plan preparedness, security, and educational programming, to name a few.

“Although most are supported by the majority of the educational community, the reality is that each mandate requires a variety of resources: administrative, clerical, and financial,” wrote Snyder and Diefenbach in their joint report to the board.

“Audits, for example: We have an external audit, internal audit, claims audit, Medicare audit, an IRS audit, an audit by the state comptroller’s office,” said Diefenbach in response to a board member’s query.

Presenting a 2012 survey by the New York Association of School Business Officials, Diefenbach reported that, on average, unfunded mandates cost schools 3.29 percent of their budgets or an average of about $1.6 million per district.

The report said the three most expensive unfunded mandates for all schools are the Annual Professional Performance Reviews, where teachers must be evaluated in part by student test scores; the Triborough Amendment, which allows school employees to get contractual raises even if their contract has expired; and Wicks Law, which requires government construction projects, over $500,000 upstate, to have separate contractors for plumbing, heating, and electrical work. The three programs account for a third of all unfunded mandate spending, over $383 million statewide, the report stated.

While Diefenbach said some of the unfunded mandates represented important programs, he said schools should be allowed to address them locally, which would make spending more efficient depending on each district’s needs.

Another issue Diefenbach raised with the board was the Gap Elimination Adjustment law introduced when David Patterson was governor, which took back aid to close the state budget gap and was initially intended to be a temporary measure.

“Basically, the law takes money and redistributes it throughout the state. It takes a piece of everybody’s state aid,” said Diefenbach. He said Voorheesville had lost between $2 million and $3 million to the adjustment since it was implemented.

“This is a horrible thing school districts are facing, and I’m not saying poorer schools shouldn’t get help, but how the distribution goes and how it’s handed out needs to be looked at,” said Diefenbach.

Snyder pointed out that the amount was about the same as Voorheesville’s aid shortfall in the last two years.

“If they just gave us that back, we wouldn’t have to be making decisions about budget cuts,” she said.

Snyder told the board that the numbers in the preliminary budget were based on the governor’s budget proposal and figures could change.

“When we first started the process, we assumed we’d get 0 percent. It’s early, we’re starting to put things together, but really we’re waiting to see what happens,” she said.

Other Business

In other business the board:

— They heard from Snyder, that reported the district broke even in revenues from the Broadway tribute band, Beatlemania Again, that performed Feb. 2 at the Lydia Tobler Theater.

The district has been exploring alternative revenue options to help avoid cuts to educational programs by advertising the theater to private vendors.

The district’s contracts so far are either charging a flat rate to use the 790-seat venue, along with any other related costs such as custodial, technical or food-service support.

Though the district failed to make any money off the recent performance Snyder said the media attention from the show had resulted in “an enormous number of calls” about renting the space.

On April 12 and 13, the Northeastern District Barbershop Harmony Society will perform at the school theater, and, on May 5, the rock-jazz group, Standard Clam, will play;

— Passed a resolution in appreciation of retiring elementary teaching assistant Laura Bye. Bye has served the district for two decades and a number of board members offered her personal praise during the meeting.

“She is so very dedicated, she is going to be missed,” said Snyder; and

— Learned that Voorheesville has officially begun it own independent lunch program and pulled out of the federal lunch program. The school will not be eligible for federal aid that subsidized the program. Snyder blamed the federal program for causing lunch purchases to drop, saying the school was losing money.

Though the district has struggled in past years to keep it own lunch program profitable Snyder reported that elementary school students alone were throwing away about 30 to 40 pounds of fresh produce every day because the federal program forced students to buy items they didn’t want. School officials also complained students were often skipping lunch and traveling to restaurants in the area before returning for after school sports and activities.

“No school is in a position to endure those losses of participation at the rate it is dropping,” she said.

At Berne-Knox-Westerlo

By Marcello Iaia

HILLTOWNS — District budget discussions began for Berne-Knox-Westerlo this month, with at least three of five board members saying they wanted no tax increase.

At the Feb. 4 board of education meeting, Business Official David Hodgkinson presented a proposed budget of $21.6 million, which included a projected $400,000 increase in state aid.

“That’s just the way that now some of these projects are coming online and paying us aid on. Foundation aid is flat, nothing really changed there,” said Hodgkinson.

The Gap Elimination Adjustment law, passed in 2010 to close the state’s budget shortfall, meant BKW would be giving up $1.6 million in state aid for the district. Hodgkinson said the same amount is proposed this year.

Superintendent Paul Dorward noted that the legislature has not yet acted on the governor’s proposal, which includes a restoration of nearly $120,000 in aid for BKW. Additional revenue is expected from five to eight international students the district plans to enroll next year, and is not part of the current budget estimates.

Revenue projections for the 2013-14 fiscal year were $154,000 short of the $21.6 rollover budget, using a 2-percent increase to the tax levy. Without any increase in the levy, the difference — keeping the same staff and programs — could be around $370,000.

A state law, new last year, caps tax-levy increases at 2 percent, varying according to formula, unless the school budget passes by 60 percent or more. BKW has had difficulty getting a simple majority to pass budgets in some recent years.

Hodgkinson said benefits are driving the costs, along with a $300,000 payment on a $931,263 bond, starting next year, and a transfer increase of $40,000 to maintain the meal program.

The $18,000 of reserves used by Hodgkinson in the current projection includes a bond payment of $14,000 to be made on the Westerlo school building, sold in 2010 to the town of Westerlo, and $4,000 to be used from money set aside for the reduction of property taxes.

Projections made last year for 2013-14 included $224,000, using $200,000 from the retirement contribution reserve, which totals more than $400,000.

“If we change this to 224, then we have more than enough for this year,” said Dorward of the amount used from reserves. He wanted assurance that cuts to programming and staff would not be necessary.

Last year, a full-time English teacher position was eliminated and a French teacher’s hours were reduced.

“I personally would not support anything other than a zero-percent increase in the levy,” said board member Helen Lounsbury.

She added, as did other members, that the numbers could change as the budgeting process moves along. Voters will decide on the budget in May.

“I think you’re using our reserves when I don’t think we have to yet,” said member Maureen Sikule, who was willing to consider a levy increase “someplace between zero and 2.”

State law requires districts have no more in their fund balance than 4 percent of the next year’s budget. The governor has said districts should spend down their reserves to meet the tax-levy cap.

Board member Jill Norray staked the levy increase “somewhere around 2 percent,” and was similarly insistent that programming cannot be cut any further.

“You don’t know how close you are to rock bottom because we don’t have the baseline budget,” said Vasilios Lefkaditis, president of the board.

Lefkaditis has pushed for a ground-up approach to constructing the budget, rather than the rollover of current expenses.

“When you’re struggling with money, you need to figure out what it costs to survive, and then build from there,” Lefkaditis told The Enterprise.

The board decided during its January goal-setting meeting that the business office would outline a baseline budget by the end of June, made from core expenses and state mandates for the district, to be used when crafting the budget for fiscal year 2014-15.

“Last year, I voted against the budget for that reason. We’re shooting in the dark,” said Lefkaditis.

Gerald Larghe and Lefkaditis both said they wanted “zero percent with an eye towards increasing.”

At the meeting, parent Karen White and technology teacher Joshua Baker said using reserves for a zero percent tax levy increase would be unwise.

“If there’s anything you’d be able to give back to these kids with a 1-percent budget, I think you should consider it,” said White.

Projections for the following two years include 2-percent tax-levy increases.

For fiscal year 2014-15, state aid was projected to be flat, at 8.41 million, and $218,000 would be spent from reserves. The appropriated fund balance would be decreased from the previous two years to $1 million, with a projected deficit of almost $730,000.

For fiscal year 2015-16, state aid was projected to increase by roughly $150,000, to $8.56 million, and reserves’ spending would come down again to $18,000. The appropriated fund balance would be $1 million, with a projected deficit of more than $1 million.