GUILDERLAND — The school board here has spent its last two meetings, on March 4 and 11, wrestling with next year’s budget proposal but still has no final figures.

Rising health insurance costs and tax certiorari expenses have, despite proposed staff reductions, left a $450,000 budget gap that Guilderland plans to close by cutting two more jobs and by drawing on its rainy-day account.

“We find ourselves in really a pretty perfect storm here,” Superintendent Marie Wiles told the board on March 4, the date originally slated for presentation of a finalized plan.

This is set against a backdrop of state aid figures probably not being ready ahead of the board’s April 8 date to adopt a budget — voters have their say on May 20 — and against worries about the security of federal funds.

I​​n December, Andrew Van Alstyne, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, had projected a rollover budget of $130 million for Guilderland next year, an increase of 4 percent over this year.

The health-insurance increase alone, of $2.3 million, is more than the allowable levy increase, of $1.8 million.

Guilderland had drained the reserves it had set aside to cover the many tax challenges filed by property owners after the town’s revaluation and so took out a bond to cover the costs, with payments totalling $747,000 overall.

“There’s lots of worry out there …. about potential changes to federal funding,” said Wiles on March 4. Guilderland receives about $1.9 million annually in federal funds, which is included in the budget proposal.

Wiles told The Enterprise earlier, when threats were being made that schools like Guilderland’s with diversity, equity and inclusion programs would lose their federal aid, “We are not going to in any way change our course in the work we do serving our students.” Although it would be difficult to make up those federal funds, she said, the district will stay the course.

“It’s not that we’re doing diversity,” said Wiles. “We are diversity.”

When board members on March 11 pressed Van Alstyne on what the loss of federal funds would mean for the district, he said, “It would be significant.”

With entry-level teachers being paid about $92,000, he said, that could mean cutting 20 teachers.

This is the first time in years that cuts have been needed in Guilderland schools to balance the budget.

Protests were heard on March 11 from parents and community members over proposed cuts to first-grade teaching assistants, Altamont Elementary School’s librarian hours, a combining of sections at Altamont making fourth-grade classes larger, and an administrative cut.

On March 4, while Wiles did not present a final plan, she assured the board the budget would not exceed the state-set levy limit. To pierce the cap would require more than 60 percent approval of the budget rather than a simple majority vote.

Additionally, the district is facing declining enrollment. While the drop for next year is predicted to be just eight students, the projection for incoming kindergartners shows a steep decline.

“We are seeing significant declines in early elementary enrollment and future kindergarten projections,” Wiles told the board on March 4. “If that holds true, that is going to work its way through the whole organization and it will be really important that the district, as hard as it is, right sizes staff as that happens.”

Even though there is a nationwide declining birth rate in the United States, Van Alstyne said the projections for future kindergartners in Guilderland are lower than in neighboring districts.

David Dwyer asked from the gallery, “Is there any way we can make our classrooms more attractive for parents to move here? That seems to be the name of the game if we’re losing kids.”

Speaking of Altamont, Dwyer went on “Is there anything the village can do that can help bring in more families?”

Van Alstyne noted that families with kindergartners are “often early in their income-earning cycle and looking for more affordable housing” of which there is a dearth in Guilderland.

Board member Meredith Brière, who has children that will be attending kindergarten, told Dwyer, “The attractiveness of the classrooms had nothing to do with why we moved into the district. It was all about the quality of the education.”

Wiles stressed near the conclusion of the March 4 budget discussion that the spending plan “maintains class-size guidelines; maintains most, not all, programs and services to support our students; includes enrollment-driven reductions using attrition whenever possible; adds programs and services that are deemed necessary; and addresses, because we have to, increased costs that are out of our control — things like health insurance and large tax refunds.”

She concluded, “After all of that, we are still $450,000 short.”

March 11 workshop

At their meeting a week later, board members sought to address that gap.

In person and through letters, they heard eight protests to proposed cuts.

They also heard from State Senator Patricia Fahy and Assemblywoman Gabriella Romero about legislative progress on the state budget.

Guilderland has based its budget proposal on the usually more conservative executive budget that Governor Kathy Hochul proposed in January.

The proposals from the Senate and Assembly show a roughly 3-percent increase in Foundation Aid, Fahy and Romero said.

However, Van Alstyne noted that the governor’s proposal, which was based on the updated data recommended by a Rockefeller Institute study, had already increased Guilderland’s Foundation Aid by nearly 6 percent.

“I would not anticipate us receiving a Foundation Aid increase,” Van Alstyne said, adding that he would certainly like one.

Fahy called talk of federal cuts on everything from Pell grants to the school lunch program “some very serious clouds.”

“This year, it’s like an alternative universe …,” she said. “The rug can be pulled out from under us.”

She also said of the state trying to make up for the loss of any federal funds, “We cannot backfill.”

Although, by law, the state budget is to be finalized by April 1, it rarely is.

“I’ll put in a plug for having it done before April 8th,” Wiles told the visiting legislators, “because the board has to adopt our budget at that point. And, if we do benefit from any additional aid, if it comes after that, we can’t really use it to address some of the tough struggles that we’re working through.”

The meeting opened with comments from Amanda Stygar, who said she was speaking on behalf of many families with third-graders at Altamont Elementary. The budget proposal cuts the fourth-grade sections from three this year to two sections next year, increasing the class size to 24 students.

The district’s guidelines call for 18 to 23 students in classes for kindergartner through second grade, and 21 to 25 students for third- through sixth-grade classes.

“A budget is a statement of values,” said Stygar. “You invest in what you believe in.”

She said she was also “deeply troubled” by reducing the librarian’s post from four days to just above half-time.

On March 4, Joe Burke, who directs the Altamont Free Library, also wrote to the board on the importance of Altmont’s school librarian.

On May 20, district voters will also be deciding on a $57 million capital project meant to make Guilderland’s seven schools future ready. Stygar, who served on a Future-Ready Task Force, said, “I would still much rather my kids learn in an outdated environment, but have 17 kids in their class than in an updated environment but 24 kids in their class.”

Jason Roberts also wrote to the board protesting the reduction of sections for fourth grade at Altamont next year and citing the “amazing” progress his child has made this year in his small third-grade class.

Katherine Nelson, another Altamont parent, noted in her missive to the board that a community survey on priorities showed class size was consistently viewed as a top priority.

She also wrote in favor of keeping teaching assistants for first-grade classrooms districtwide.

As a volunteer at the school library, Nelson wrote of its importance, noting librarians boost literacy rates particularly for economically disadvantaged children.

“AE has the second highest rate of poverty among the elementary schools in the district,” she wrote, "suggesting that a full-time school librarian is particularly important for our building.”

Shamila Kadajji wrote about the “vital role” played by teaching assistants “supporting students socially and emotionally.”

Claire Watts Webster also protested the proposed cut of first-grade teaching assistants, calling them a “cherished component of children’s learning.”

 Altamont parent Carley Digeser said her third-grade son would be hurt by the larger class sizes next year and her kindergartner daughter would be hurt by the lack of teaching assistants in first grade next year.

“I want both of my children to reach their fullest academic potential  and with the proposed budget cuts for next year, I do not see this happening,” Digeser wrote.

Anne Manzella wrote of her “deep concern and dismay” caused by the proposed restructuring of the administrative oversight of the visual and media arts and music department programs.

She said it would “significantly undermine the specialized leadership and support these disciplines require.”

At the end of the meeting, Christine Govin, president of the Guilderland Teaching Assistants unit, said that she, too, had written in favor of keeping the posts for first-grade teaching assistants.

The proposed cut to first-grade teaching assistants, Wiles said, came about “because we have eight retirements and I don’t want anyone to lose a job.”

She also said, “I don’t think anyone is arguing that this is a great idea. It’s not. But I don’t know where else we come up with $365,600. We are one of the few school districts that has teaching assistants in classrooms.”

Wiles explained that three self-contained special-education classes had moved out of Altamont Elementary School, leaving 15 class sections that each go to the library one time a week for 30 minutes with their classroom teacher.

“So,” said Wiles of the proposed cut in librarian hours, “our feeling is there is ample time in between for students, if they wanted to go on a day that isn’t their library day to get a book.”

Ultimately, Wiles and Van Alstyne proposed closing the remaining $450,000 gap by reallocating a special-education teacher’s post (for $92,200) from the high school to the middle school and not filling an auto mechanic’s job for $92,000.

Both posts have been empty for a year without candidates to fill them, Wiles said.

They further proposed filling the gap by adding $100,000 for technology purchases from money to be used for one-time purchases from solar facility PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) funds and making up the remaining $168,100 from the district’s fund balance.

Several board members questioned the use of the district’s rainy-day funds to balance the budget as Van Alsyne had earlier presented graphs showing Guilderland lagged behind its Suburban Council peers in the proportion of its savings.

“I’m preaching to the choir here,” acknowledged board member Rebeca Butterfield before she asked, “If we’re using it for ongoing expenses, is it going to be a problem next year?”

“We’ve been trying to be mindful of that,” said Wiles of building up Guilderland’s fund balance, “but we’re also trying to preserve programs as much as we possibly can.”

Board member Tara Molloy-Grocki, a retired elementary-school teacher, said, “I know we have no money.” Nevertheless, she said, “I just feel very strongly that we need to find a way to keep the first-grade classroom TAs. They are such an instrumental part to the classroom.”

Board member Nina Kaplan, who works as a teacher, also expressed her support for teaching assistants, saying, “TAs provide so much of a role for students and for teachers.”

Board members asked if the solar facility educational contribution funds couldn’t be used for teachers or teaching assistants to which Van Alstyne replied that would create a “fiscal cliff,” meaning those posts would have to be paid for in future years without available funds.

Board member Kim Blasiak questioned the efficacy of not filling the post for a high school special education teacher, using those funds to pay for a middle-school teacher instead, since the board had earlier heard complaints from the parents of special-education students, saying they felt isolated at the high school.

Lisa Knowles, who directs pupil personnel services for the district, responded, “Our teachers have developed very positive [relationships] with the families and the team of TAs and teachers have really come together and the students are doing well and seem to be making progress and moving forward.”

Blasiak pressed, “So are the parents genuinely happy with it or is it just us saying that it’s actually going well?”

Knowles said, “The needs of the students of our upper 18- to 21-year-olds are vastly different than our entering middle schoolers.” She noted that the high school students also interact with other adults besides teachers in school-to-work programs as they function “more independently, getting ready to transition” out of school.

School board President Blanca Gonzalez-Parker said, “I think it’s safe to say that none of us feel really great about this budget … including the people who have worked really hard to present it to us …They literally have been looking under rocks to try to avoid some of these things that we really are having a hard time with … As ugly as this is, nobody’s going to be laid off.”

“None of us think that they’re not looking under rocks and digging because we know, when we sit with every single one of them, that they have this school at the heart …,” rejoined Blasiak. “But we all have a right to ask any questions. That’s our job.”

Wiles concluded, “This has been an unusual budget year because usually you would have received a complete and balanced budget even if it was ugly, last week. We felt, given the amount of uncertainty and the need to continue working through this, that it was better to delay just a bit and have a clear picture.”

Wiles said a final draft will be presented to the board at its workshop on March 25 with board adoption scheduled for April 8.