BERNE — Hilltown residents can learn about next year’s budget proposal in their own neighborhoods as well as having volunteer citizens helping to build the spending plan.

On Monday, by unanimous vote, the board reinstated the Budget Advisory Committee and agreed to a series of six community presentations.

“We’re affectionately calling it our roadshow,” said the school business manager, Sarah Blood. “Superintendent Mundell and I will attend. We want as much feedback as possible...to build the best budget we can.”

In January, the school board, which then had just three members — President Joan Adriance, and members Russell Chauvot and Lillian Sisson-Chrysler — had unanimously voted to suspend the committee for this year favoring community presentations.

In February, four people — three former school board members and the current committee chairman — spoke to the board in favor of keeping the advisory committee.

The board agreed to decide after the Feb. 23 school board elections. Nathan Elble and Matthew Tedeschi were sworn into office at the start of Monday’s meeting. During the campaign, Elble, the top vote-getter, had said the budget process “should be a multi-pronged approach.” Tedeschi had said, “If the Budget Advisory Committee exists, it should go on tour with the superintendent and support it.”

Six on-the-road sessions are scheduled: March 8 at 7 p.m. at the Berne Reformed Church, March 15 at 6 p.m. at the Rock Road Chapel in Berne, March 31 at 7 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Westerlo, April 9 at 11 a.m. at the Senior Center in Berne, April 11 at 7 p.m. at the Knox Town Hall, and April 16 at the Knox Reformed Church.

The board appointed these members to the Budget Advisory Committee: Tim Allen, Mike Swain, John Judge, Jeff Harvey, Amy Damin, and Chasity Mcgivern; the board said Ed Ackroyd and Richard Umholtz would be invited back. Additionally, board members Sisson-Chrysler and Tedeschi will serve as liaisons.

Budget forecast

Berne-Knox-Westerlo currently has a $22.3 million budget, having kept the tax levy steady for two years. Enrollment is declining and the district’s commercial tax base is small. For next year, the state is imposing a 0.12-percent tax cap, based on this year’s near-zero Consumer Price Index. The only way school districts can top that is if 60 percent or more of the voters approve the budget.

Superintendent Timothy Mundell said on Monday that he had heard “loud and clear” that the community want no increase on taxes.

The board is slated to adopt a proposal on April 18 and the public has its say on May 17.

Blood showed the school board on Monday forms she had distributed to staff this fall, her first at BKW. She said she wanted to involved administrators and staff to “give them accountability.”

Blood went on, “Every department has determined their needs. We told them to think big as well as prioritize.”

One form was for adding staff, another was for eliminating a position. In both cases, a justification was called for. Other forms surveyed summer school needs and proposals for new courses or new programs.

Still others dealt with requests for purchasing supplies, textbooks, and equipment, or paying for travel and conferences, mailings, consultants, and catering. There were forms for instructional media, software and hardware requests, building repairs, and transportation.

Blood presented a chart of per-pupil expenditures, comparing BKW to nearby districts. She made a point of saying that, while some in the community compare BKW to Voorheesville, there are important differences between the two districts.

Voorheesville spends $18,527 per pupil and has a combined wealth ratio of 1.149. An average combined wealth ratio is 1.0. Berne-Knox-Westerlo spends $23, 437 per pupil and has a combined wealth ratio of 0.875.

Also, Blood noted, Voorheesville has costs for out-of-district tuition totaling $90,045, the lowest of the six districts on her list, while BKW has the highest at $688,605 — “a huge amount,” she said.

“I want to make sure we’re comparing ourselves with people in the same league,” Blood said.

Duanesburg has a combined wealth ratio of 0.72, spends $17,502 per pupil, and spends $470,611 on out-of-district tuition. Schoharie has a combined wealth ratio of 0.767, spends $23,318 per pupil, and has out-of-district tuition costs totaling $324,841.

Blood presented the history of the Gap Elimination Adjustment over the past six years as it applies to BKW. When Governor David Paterson was faced with a large state budget gap, he instituted the GEA, talking away funds that had been slated for schools, as a temporary measure.

The GEA has since been codified into law although members of the State Senate this year have talked of abolishing it. Blood’s lists totaled the GEA reduction for BKW at $6,935,489, concluding, “It impacts our students almost seven-million dollars worth.”

Blood also presented a list of the total state aid, comparing the current allocations to that proposed by the governor for next year. BKW received $9,344,859 in state aid this year and, if the legislature were to adopt the governor’s proposal for next year, the district would receive $21,373 more in aid.

The other big chunk of income for the BKW budget comes from local property taxes, which totaled $9,571,198 this year.

“This year, we had to take out a reserve to balance our budget,” said Blood.

Money from the retirement system reserve totaled $100,000, from the transportation reserve totaled $73,000, from the debt reserve totaled $25,000, from the tax reduction reserve totaled $6,000, and from the appropriated fund balance totaled $1.3 million.

“We have a great deal of unfunded mandates...That’s taking dollars away from opportunities,” said Blood.

Looking ahead to next year’s spending plan, blood said, “We’re going to have to be creative, very creative in our budgeting.”