Nanuet Schools Talk Staffing Cuts

The Nanuet School District has an estimated $4 million budget gap to close. the Nanuet School Board went through part of the 2013-14 budget, line by line, at Monday night’s first budget workshop. They reviewed:

• Staffing and Instruction
• BOCES and Special Education
• Instructional Media and Pupil Services

This budget is attached to this Patch article as a PDF. :

• General Support
• Buildings and Grounds
• Transportation
• Benefits
• Revenue

“We have a $4 million gap this year. If we have a $4 million gap or a $3 million gap next year, we’re going to be looking at raising class sizes and cutting programs," said Superintendent Mark McNeill. "Those are the conditions the state has put us in with this tax levy limit and mandated costs that have skyrocketed.”

He said that the district needs to look at the balance of what they must cut and what they can take from reserves.

“We’re in a long-range planning mode now of trying to make our reserves such that you have enough to apply every year, trying to find that balance. There are districts around the state that are saying that this is their year of insolvency. They don’t have the reserves.”

On March 19, there will be a total budget review followed by a regular board meeting. Superintendent Mark McNeill went through a short slideshow:

Keeping our Programs

• All day kindergarten
• Art
• Athletics
• Foreign language (upper level courses)
• Library
• Music
• Other (high school graduation cost, play and musical cost, clubs and activities, SRO, substance abuse counselor, school security, residency investigations, technology)

Superintendent's Recommended Staffing Cuts

• 9.6 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) Teaching Positions

• Art .4
• Elementary 3.0
• English 1.0
• Library Media Specialist 1.0
• Music 1.0
• Physical Education 1.2
• Science 1.0
• Technology 1.0

• 4.8 FTE Teaching Assistant Positions
• 2.2 FTE Clerical Positions
• 2.0 FTE Custodial Positions
• 2.0 FTE Monitor Positions
• All Freshman Coaches
• Assistant Varsity Coaches (except for Wrestling and Football)

His third chart shows that the gap in the budget under the tax levy limit is $4,026,163 and his recommendation to close the gap is to cut $1,650,000 from staff and apply $2,376,163 from reserves. That reduces the reserves to $2,505,837. This third slide is attached to this Patch post.

"I'm here 32 years and this was the worst budget we've ever had to put together,” said Board President Anne Byrne. “It devastates this board that we had to make some of the cuts we had to make for next year's budget. We’re between being alive and well for the future and doing what we have to do today to make sure that happens … we (the board) feel absolutely devastated that we have to put forward a budget that actually cuts things that we know are good for kids and that was the staff you saw get cut. It was agonizing to come to the dollar figure that we had to come to.”

Program for Students with Disabilities-Med Eligible (Line 2250) increased $609,406.

"Have we gotten a dramatic increase in special education students in this past year?" asked Board President Anne Byrne.

"Up until this point in March, we've had over 20 children transfer in classified, which is much higher than we've ever had," said Meredith Fox, Director of Student Support Services. "Some came from BOCES programs" while others were already in the program but moved into the district.

Related Patch Articles:

March

• Nanuet Schools Break Down the Budget

February

• $4M Gap In Draft 2013-14 Nanuet School Budget
• McNeill Requests Tabling of Grade Reconfiguration

October 

• Future Nanuet School Budget: "Going to be Survival"
• Nanuet School Budget: Possible Depletion of Reserves
• Superintendent McNeill Explains Proposed Changes
• Nanuet School Budget: Breaking Down the Numbers
• Nanuet Schools 2013-14 Budget: $3.5M Budget Gap
• Nanuet School Board: Federal Call to Action