GUILDERLAND — The school district here, based on the governor’s budget proposal, is anticipating a nearly 11-percent increase in state aid next year for a roughly $109 million budget.

Guilderland expects close to $30 million in aid from the state, an increase of almost $3 million over this year.

“State aid is not guaranteed,” Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders cautioned the school board on Feb. 1. “We have to spend the money to get the money so it’s all based on estimates,” he said, noting there can be changes in population and operation.

The superintendent’s budget, which Marie Wiles will present on March 8, will use the estimates the district now has from the governor’s proposal.

That could change depending on what the state legislature adopts; the deadline for a final state budget is April 1.

School voters have their say on May 17.

Guilderland has not gone over the state-set levy limit since it was enacted in 2012 and doesn’t plan to do so with next year’s budget. Passing a budget under the levy limit requires a simple majority: 50 percent of the votes or more.

If a district chooses to present a budget over the levy limit, the budget must pass by a supermajority vote of 60 percent or more. If a budget is defeated, the tax levy cannot be raised from the previous year.

The limit is either 2 percent or the prior year’s consumer price index, whichever is less. For the first time since 2019, property tax levy growth for school districts will be capped at 2 percent, up from 1.23 percent last year, according to data released by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Sanders last week went over the state-set eight-step formula by which a school district’s levy limit is determined. The maximum levy allowed for Guilderland will be $78,205,199, which is an increase of 2.96 percent — roughly $2.3 million more — over the current year.

Bus purchases

Transportation Supervisor Inho Suh is proposing spending just under a million dollars to purchase eight new 66-passenger school buses next year, three of them with chains. Chains cost about $3,000 per bus, he said.

“We’re finding out, especially in the hills, chain is a must-have, especially when it becomes icy,” he told the school board on Feb. 1.

The projected cost of $976,000 is about $10,000 lower than last year for the same number of buses. This is because, in previous years, Guilderland purchased buses with undercarriages, which are typically used by sports teams to store gear.

“The undercarriage alone is about $4,000,” Suh said, “and this proposal eliminates that undercarriage, the reason being it’s currently underutilized.”

Currently, Guilderland has 101 vehicles to transport students. This includes 73 buses that hold 66 passengers, 13 buses that hold 30 passengers, seven buses that hold 18 passengers and one wheelchair, three buses that hold 24 passengers and three wheelchairs, three minivans, and two Suburbans.

For the last decade, Guilderland has purchased seven to nine 66-passenger buses every year.

“The biggest reason why we do a 10-year replacement plan is because of corrosion to the buses and we’re experiencing that curing these cold months ….,” Suh said. “As it begins to rot, it becomes unsafe.”

This year, Guilderland has 3,554 students attending class in person while 1,381 are learning remotely. Also, 2,100 students opted out of riding a school bus.

The district has 50 in-house bus routes, four routes that serve students in BOCES or outside placements, 12 out-of-district routes, 13 day care centers that are serviced, and 21 outsourced routes for out-of-district schools.

Next year, Suh anticipates serving 4,831 in-district students with 560 students opting out of bus transportation. He plans 64 in-house bus routes, 12 out-of-district routes,  servicing 22 day care centers and 32 outsourced routes for out-of-district schools.

Suh went over advantages of new buses, including lower maintenance costs with gasoline buses, no exhaust system maintenance and having some of the latest technology.

For next year as well as for the last two years, Guilderland has purchased only 66-passenger buses. “There’ll come a time when we need to catch up with some of the small buses,” said Suh.

Board member Rebecca Butterfield referenced Governor Kathy Hochul’s goal of electrifying all school buses in the state by 2035. Hochul announced a plan last month to introduce legislation to that effect as well as requiring that, beginning in 2027, all new school bus purchases are electric.

Butterfield, a pediatrician, asked Suh for his thoughts on the environmental impact as well as the potential medical impact on children who may now potentially be breathing fumes.

Suh responded that, in the western United States, “where the climates are a little more tame,” electric buses are being used.

“We can certainly look into that,” Suh said but he added that, when it gets really cold, an electric bus doesn’t perform as well, “especially when it has to climb a hill.”

“In my opinion,” concluded Suh, “with not doing any further research, it’s not the best possibility for our school district.”

Sanders added that there will be a number of requirements that the district may have to meet in coming years, including charging stations.

COVID update

Wiles updated the board with the latest on the state’s mask mandate for schools. After a Nassau County Supreme Court judge ruled the requirement was unconstitutional because the legislature wasn’t involved, Wiles said, “Chaos ensued for a good 48 hours.”

The state’s middle-level Appellate division then issued a stay while the matter is decided. That stay is being challenged as well, at the state’s top court, the Court of Appeals.

From now until March 2, everyone in school wears a mask, said Wiles, adding, “What happens after March 2 is a little bit of a mystery still.”

So far, the district has received 6,000 COVID-19 test kits, Wiles said. Tests will be distributed to students before the February break, she said, but students will not be required to show a negative test result to return to school.

The district’s Recovery Group has started a pilot project so that, when a classroom has multiple COVID cases, the school will reach out to test kids every day and “not wait for the shoe to drop,” said Wiles.

She also said, once someone has contracted COVID-19, he or she doesn’t have to test again.

Guilderland has also started gathering information on students’ vaccination status, asking parents to upload the information into an online form.

This information, Wiles said in a notice, will streamline nurses’ work as well as inform decisions on mitigation strategies and help with contact tracing, which is now done selectively when, for example, there are concerns for a student with severe medical issues.

Other business

In other business at its Feb. 1 meeting, the Guilderland School Board:

— Heard from Sanders that, for the seventh year in a row, the state comptroller, reviewing the 2020-21 school year, gave Guilderland “No Designation” for fiscal stress, meaning that the financial indicators reviewed were not indicative of potential fiscal stress.

However, the district’s environmental stress rating changed from “No Designation” to “Susceptible to Stress”; the other levels are “Moderate Stress” and “Significant Stress.”

The two major factors cited by the comptroller as contributing to environmental stress, Sanders said, are a growing rate of teacher turnover and a higher percentage of English Language Learners.

Board President Seema Rivera took exception to this, saying the state encourages looking at diversity as an asset. When considering the number of students who are learning English because they speak their native languages as well, Rivera said, “I would guess a lot of teachers and families that we have would see it as a positive.” She concluded the state was sending a mixed message;

— Adopted a revised trust agreement as part of the Capital Area Schools Health Insurance Consortium;

— Approved formation of a new club, Tourette’s Awareness. The application states the club’s purpose is “to spread awareness of what it’s like to live with Tourette’s and to hopefully stop bullying ….”; and

— Heard thanks from Beth Ford and Angela Salvantis on behalf of the district’s school nurses for a monetary bonus. They thanked the board for keeping the schools safe during the pandemic and said, “We appreciate the acknowledgement of the hard work we are providing for our students and school community.”