HILLTOWNS — While some Albany County school districts are seeing large increases in state aid under Governor Kathy Hochul’s budget, which muscled up school aid by 7 percent, Berne-Knox-Westerlo expects an increase of around 4.5 percent overall, and a 3-percent increase in Foundation Aid specifically.

Aid, as outlined in Hochul’s budget, would pay for roughly half of BKW’s current budget.

BKW Superintendent Timothy Mundell explained to the board of education last month that outside aid for the district was already maximized because of declining enrollment there, meaning BKW will make out less well in the 2022-23 school year than nearby districts like Guilderland, which anticipates an 11 percent increase in state aid.

“There are a lot of things going on around education aid,” Mundell told the board at its Jan. 24 meeting, “mainly the Foundation Aid full-funding formula being enacted and a promise to pay … districts who have been short-changed over the last 13 years. For us at BKW, we’re going to get minimal increases in Foundation Aid because we’re already fully funded due to the declining enrollment [in the district].”

Foundation Aid is the state’s main education operating aid formula, based on student need, community wealth, and regional cost differences. In 1993, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity argued successfully in court that some students were being deprived of the constitutional right to a sound basic education due to inadequate state funding. But, until last year, the State Legislature had not followed the court order to restore funding.

Hochul’s budget provides a $1.6 billion increase in Foundation Aid, an 8-percent increase, supporting the second year of the three-year phase-in of full funding of the current Foundation Aid formula; each school district is to receive a minimum year-to-year increase of 3 percent. 

For the current school year, BKW is slated to receive $6,666,504 in Foundation Aid, and the district expects $6,866,503 in Foundation Aid for the 2022-23 year. 

“The [new] formula actually would have reduced our Foundation Aid over that 13-year period,” Mundell added. 

BKW should experience slight increases in other aid areas as well, including aid based on use of Board of Cooperative Educational Services, building aid, and tech aid — plus a restabilized transportation aid stream, which had been affected by the pandemic-related school closures — bringing about an overall aid increase of around $512,000, and a total of $11,882,609.

This would pay for roughly half of the current $23.7 million district budget.

“In comparison to what the current tax levy is — $10,779,000 — for the first time in over 20 years, the district is receiving a substantially larger portion of its revenue from state aid as opposed to the tax levy, and that’s good news for our community,” Mundell said.

State aid figures aren’t final until the legislature weighs in, with a deadline of April 1 for the state budget. Voters go to the polls on May 17.

Mundell concluded his update by saying that, with revenues projected, he would begin work on the budget’s expenses.

“The object … is to make sure that we’re providing all the things we need to provide for our programs and our students, and to do so with a fiscally responsible proposition for the tax levy come May, and utilizing all these resources in a very strategic manner,” Mundell said.