VCSD approves $22M plan

VOORHEESVILLE – The school board unanimously here unanimously adopted a $22 million spending plan last Monday, two days before the state budget was finalized, restoring BOCES aid to the schools.

The board did not rely on the restoration of state aid for the Board of Cooperative Educational Services.  The budget, which goes to public vote on May 20, is up from last year by 2.8 percent, or $589,000. 

The tax levy increase will be 1.12 percent, or about $160,000.  The tax-rate increase is estimated to be 3.92 percent, nearly half the projected increase had the BOCES aid not been restored.

Former governor Eliot Spitzer’s plan would have reduced BOCES aid statewide by $31 million dollars, and shifted aid from wealthy districts, decreasing revenues by $236,000.  BOCES programs cost the district around $510,000 per year, mostly in the form of special-education programs, but also vo-tech and internship programs, as well as the Tech Valley High School program. 

Superintendent Linda Langevin said that the restored BOCES money would not affect the appropriations budget.

“The appropriations and the revenue are two different budgets.  The amount we’ll appropriate for expenditures will remain the same.

“We are expecting poor economic times next year,” she said.  She pointed out the wisdom of keeping a surplus in the coffers, and said that, by New York State law, the district is able to maintain up to four percent fund balance against future contingencies.  The district’s current fund balance is 3 percent, as set by the school board.

Board members also expressed a desire to remain fiscally conservative; and some were wary of the budget as propositioned, especially in light of the potentially instable state budget.

 “It’s far more money than they probably have…too much borrowing and one-shot gimmicks, and they may find that they will have to make some mid-year course adjustments,” said board member Kevin T. Kroencke of the state’s budget earlier this week.  “Given the fact that they have talked openly about mid-year adjustments, I am going to operate under the premise that it’s more likely than not.

 “We did the best job we could with the constraints that we had, and I feel the money we spent was spent in the best way we could,” he said of the board’s work on the spending plan.  “The money spent will serve the district and the students in the best manner,” he said, adding that most of the $589,000 increase will go to salary raises for teachers and staff, as required by control.

“Seventy-two to 73 percent of the school budget you don’t have any control over; I mean that it’s set already through contractual obligations to teachers.  Those agreements are usually ratified every three years, so the one we just did, is for the next three years,” he said, referencing the agreement between the Voorheesville Teachers Association and the district earlier this spring, by which teachers shall  receive raises every year for the next three years.

Kroencke explained that the only additional full-time staff expense was the hiring of a curriculum coordinator.  As one of the business teachers will be part-time next year, the additional expense to the district will be half of one full-time staff-person.

Board member Timothy Blow expressed views on the spending plan. 

“The only thing that might be inadequate is the cost of fuel; other than that, I think we have more than enough budgeted,” said Blow on Monday.  “I wish we had been able to cut a little more out of it.”

 “Just because we have extra money doesn’t mean we have to spend it,” he said of the restored BOCES aid, echoing Langevin’s conservative posture.

Bus driver’s child to stay at VCSD

The board unanimously voted to allow Lauren Tracey’s child to remain enrolled in the district.  Tracey, who lives in the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District, works as a school bus driver for Voorheesville four hours per day.  She told The Enterprise that she took the job so that her children could go to school at Voorheesville.

Voorheesville policy allows for the children of full-time employees to attend school for 10 percent of the state-set rate, so parents pay hundreds rather than thousands of dollars for tuition.

Three groups of students are allowed to attend schools in a district in which they do not live: children of full-time employees, students whose families have moved from the district but wish to finish out their junior or senior years at Voorheesville, and students whose parents are moving into the district. 

Voorheesville has 19 non-resident students enrolled; all of them except Tracey’s fifth-grader are the children of teachers who work in the district, said Langevin.  Tracey’s other child, who will enter kindergarten next year, will also be allowed to attend, Langevin said.

Tracey’s child will be “grandfathered in,” but this will be an exception, and not a rule, according to Kroencke.  He called the wording of the policy “vague.”

“It used to say ‘full-time’ and was changed to ‘six hours per day,’” said Kroencke.  “Full time for a bus driver is four hours, so they were eligible under that provision.”  He went on to say that in the future, an employee must work six hours per day in order to enroll children in the district.