GUILDERLAND — At their last meeting of 2014, Guilderland’s nine school board members looked ahead to next year’s budget, each listing priorities. The top recommendation for most was building up the district’s rainy-day savings.

Guilderland, with nearly 5,000 students, has a budget this year of $92 million.

The state’s Foundation Aid to Guilderland has been flat since 2009 and the gap elimination adjustment subtracted  $19.2 million in aid since 2010. To close multi-million-dollar budget gaps, the district has cut 227.6 posts since 2009.

The upcoming budget gap, rolling over the same expenses from this year to next, is projected at $150,000 to $160,000, a breather due largely to reductions in required pension contributions, which administrators have said will be short-lived. Also, more needs are anticipated in teaching English as a second language to the growing number of foreign students attending Guilderland.

“This is still a deficit. We have to be extremely careful,” said Judy Slack at the Dec. 16 meeting.

She, like most of the other board members, recommended adding to the district’s fund balance “so that we’re not a district on the edge of financial crisis.”

Last January, Guilderland was listed among the 13 percent of districts statewide that the comptroller designated as being fiscally stressed. Thomas DiNapoli’s report said the system’s financial indicators are based on seven different calculations in four categories: year-end fund balance, operating deficits, cash position, and short-term debt. Guilderland’s fiscal score of 26.76 percent was at the bottom end of the susceptible-listing threshold.

“We have a dichotomy between the governor and the comptroller,” Neil Sanders, Guilderland’s assistant superintendent for business, said at the time the report was released. “The governor says school districts have money in fund balances and reserves that need to be used to solve budgetary problems. The comptroller is saying, if you use up your reserves, be careful because you’re putting yourself in fiscal stress.”

Gloria Towle-Hilt said, “We’re at 2.8 percent,” referring to the percentage of the budget held in the district’s fund balance or rainy-day account. State law allows up to 4 percent to be held in the fund balance, and Towle-Hilt advised being as close to that as possible.

She also termed the new requirements for teaching English as a second language as “more mandates and no funds.”

Catherine Barber referred to an Atlantic review of Elizabeth Green’s book, Building A Better Teacher, describing the training for Japanese teachers who sit in on and scrutinize each other’s classes for hours. The system wouldn’t work in America because teachers in the United States spend more than twice the hours in the classroom.

“We’re constantly talking about efficiency…What are we losing in that process?” asked Barber.

She said replenishing the fund balance was not her biggest priority. “We’ve been cutting and cutting,” she said. “It’s a real balancing. It’s a difficult balancing.”

Colleen O’Connell favored replenishing the fund balance, noting Sanders’s predictions that Guilderland, in the years after next, will be back to million-dollar deficits.

O’Connell’s recommendation was: “Try and maintain what we have as much as we can.”

Christine Hayes said she agreed with O’Connell and added, “It’s easier to be proactive than reactive.”

Christopher McManus said, “The fund balance is very important. We have to get out of the fiscal-stress label from the comptroller.”

He also said, “All cuts are difficult.”

Vice President Allan Simpson said, “We’re very fortunate with the pension windfall…We’ve bought, in essence, a year.” He also said it is “important to maintain the high quality of education we have.”

“Looking for efficiency is very important,” said Jennifer Charron. Referring to the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, she also said, “We want to make sure we’re holding BOCES accountable.”

President Barbara Fraterrigo agreed with the majority — that next year was the time to put aside money to restore the fund balance. Then she named some items on what she called her “wish list.”

This included professional development to help teachers meet new Common Core requirements, financial literacy courses at the high school, and expanding the enrichment program so more students can participate.

Going solar

Clifford Nooney, the district’s director of facilities, told the board about research he has done over the past year, looking to put out requests for proposals in January for a two-megawatt solar-energy system.

The system would be set up on eight acres not owned by the district, from which it would get credits. He estimated that, over the course of 20 years, the district would save between $1.5 million and $2.5 million.

“There would be no cost out-of-pocket for us,” said Nooney. “We don’t lose.”

“Every little bit helps,” said Fraterrigo.

Novus hired

The board voted unanimously to appoint Novus Engineering, P.C. of Delmar to provide building commissioning services for the district’s $17.3 million capital construction project.

The term “commissioning,” said Sanders, comes from shipbuilding.  Before a ship can be commissioned, it must have equipment installed, tested, and corrected by a trained crew.

Sanders cited a Texas A&M study that showed as much as 20 percent of the energy used in an average commercial building is wasted because of systems that operate poorly. “Commissioning” is meant to reduce that waste.

Novus, one of five firms considered for the job, and recommended by both Nooney and Sanders, will be paid a fixed fee of $122,500 plus additional services on a per-hour basis, ranging from $80 for engineering to $145 for a principal.

Novus will review the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems of the capital construction project.

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Heard from Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Demian Singleton that Atticus Matkin, an eighth-grader at Farnsworth Middle School, won the Young Beekeeper Award after working with beehives over the summer;

— Heard congratulations for all of the fall sports teams for qualifying for the 2014 Scholar-Athlete Team Award, maintaining a team average of 90 percent or higher: boys’ and girls’ cross-country, field hockey, football, boys’ and girls’ soccer, girls’ swimming, girls’ tennis, boys’ and girls’ volleyball, and golf;

— Learned that the district will host a weeklong series of activities focused on digital citizenship, cyber safety, and sensible use of social media. Chris Vollum, an expert on the constructive use of social media, will present sessions for both parents and students. On Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. at Farnsworth, he’ll stress respectful online behavior; on Jan. 22 at 7 at the high school, he’ll focus on long-term implications of online activities;

— Heard a rave review from English teacher Alicia Wein who used Chromebooks in her writing class;

— Reviewed policies on advertising; board members’ oaths of office, resignation, and removal from office; code of ethics; board members’ conflicts of interest; board reorganizational meetings; board officers; appointed board officials; testing programs; internal audit function; and meals and refreshments;

— Approved an agreement with The Sage Colleges School of Health and Sciences to accept students for internship and practicum experience;

— Approved an International Club Scholarship in honor of Patricia Mackey, a high school social studies teacher and founder of the International Club. The scholarship will be awarded to a student who is tolerant, can work well on a team, appreciates diversity, and desires to learn about world nations and cultures;

— Accepted a donated radial arm saw from John Rosencrans;

— Approved a new club at the high school, The Gaming and Anime Club, which Theresa Pollack will advise without any pay. “We just have to thank these teachers who step up time and time again,” said Fraterrigo. The application form listed three student participants and said the club will “give people a chance to gather, watch, and talk about Japanese animation as well as gather to play and talk about handheld tabletop gaming”; and

— Approved a trip to Hawaii in February 2017, led by science teacher Curtis Snyder. “It seems frivolous. I don’t think it sends the right signal,” said O’Connell. “It’s too far.”

Superintendent Marie Wiles responded that the flight time was about the same as trips students take to Europe. “The curriculum linkages are very strong and interesting,” she said and, with two years of planning, there is “plenty of time to…do appropriate fundraising.”

O’Connell said some students will still be excluded because of the cost. “But it is with all of them,” said Wiles of far-flung field trips. Ultimately, the board approved the trip, 9 to 0.