Sewanhaka District Has Some State Aid Restored But Still Looking for Concessions

Though the has had some New York State aid restored to its budget, it still needs some concessions from the district's bargaining units to maintain their current staffing levels.

The amount of state aid restored in the budget was $1,154,317, according to the district. Initially under Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed cuts, $4,074,407 was going to be lost, according to State Senator ' spokesman.

With this restored level of state aid, the tax levy is 7.2 percent in this fourth version of the budget presented at Thursday evening's meeting. The budget-to-budget increase in this version of the budget is 5.4 percent. In the , the tax levy was 8.7 percent and there was a 6.6 percent budget-to-budget increase.

said the state aid level has returned to the 2009-2010 level with this restoration of aid but also noted that state aid has been cut the last three years.

The district is talking with several bargaining units and looking for concessions. Board President Jean Fichtl previously noted that if there are enough concessions there will be no layoffs and Meierdiercks reiterated that at Thursday evening's meeting.

In this version of the budget, three staffing cuts have been taken into account. There was one administrative position that was cut in a prior version of the budget and a teacher and teacher's assistant for the beauty culture program, which has recently seen declining enrollment, will also be cut. The total savings from this beauty culture program cut is $135,000.

Addressing a parent's concern at the meeting that if these beauty culture positions are cut that they cannot easily be restored if enrollment goes up, Meierdiercks noted that getting the additional staff again should not be a problem.

In addition to looking for concessions, the district is also offering a retirement incentive which Meierdiercks is hoping 25 people will take advantage of, he said after the meeting. The district is also anticipating 15 teachers will retire this year, which is the average amount that typically retires in a year.

Meierdiercks noted that he is not comfortable going out to the public with this version of the budget and noted that the reality of the budget's passage is slim. If there are not enough concessions made by the bargaining units, it will come down to staff and program cuts, Meierdiercks said.