OSWEGO, NY – It would seem the public already has its mind made up on the school district’s 2008-09 budget proposal.
Approximately a baker’s dozen turned out Monday night to hear Superintendent David Fischer present a preview of the 2008-09 budget revote plan. The vast majority of the audience was PIGS (Participation In Government Students who have to attend such meetings as part of their class work).
Last month, voters said no to a budget proposal that had a 3.81 percent increase.
The new proposed budget would reinstate two elementary art teachers, two elementary music teachers, one phys ed teacher, one elementary librarian, one high school technology teacher and three part-time hall monitors.
The additional cost, Fischer said, is $536,000.
The tax rate per $1,000 assessed will jump from the current $20.67 to $21.87 for the coming school year. That’s an increase of 5.81 percent per $1,000 assessed.
Fischer pointed out the maximum contingency budget the district could have presented is $67,510,791.
“This proposal is still below the maximum contingency by a total of $384,520,” he added. “If the budget is defeated, the board could do one of two things; they could either adopt the budget as currently is because it is below the contingency or meet and decide to reduce the budget.”
“Based on the response that we got, for the first budget that was put up, the significant reductions that were made to the elementary programs drove people to vote no,” said Peter Colucci, assistant superintendent for business.
The board than reviewed some of the proposed cuts and restored several elementary positions.
“The board took a look at the (voters’) response and some of the comments that were made by the public and assessed the environment based on those comments,” he continued. “They determined it would be worth it to allow the voters to have a say with regards to a budget that put those additional positions back.”
For a home valued at $70,000 with the basic STAR exemption it would mean an increase of around $48 a year. Without STAR it would be closer to $84 a year or $7 a month, he noted.
“Like everyone in the community, we want what’s best for the kids. We want to show some stability and commitment to what is best for the kids,” he said. “Of course, we want voters to vote their conscious, we want them to do what they think is appropriate for the community and the students that are depending on us to do a good job with regards to their education. That’s all we can hope for.”
Voting will be conducted on June 17 from noon to 9 p.m. at the same locations as the May 20 vote.
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I do not understand how the maximum contingency budget can be $67.5 million when NYS rules say it has to be 3.36% higher than the last year budget.
I will be voting no once again and I hope that if it fails again, the school board is able to understand that the reason for the first AND second failure would be because of high taxes. In which case they should make about 2 or 3 million dollars worth of cuts to give us a 0% tax increase
Hey I have a good idea for the first place to start cutting: the 22% OCTA raise!
I’ll be out to vote NO again. This community is taxed more than enough!
Unfortunately, while most of the citizens of Oswego would love to see our children have the best of everything–with all the rising costs, cuts must be made in even the most important areas–including school budgets. We cannot continue to pay these increasing taxes when our current income is being stretched to the hilt in every area of spending.
I agree with you KM but even if times weren’t as tough with the taxes, it is important to remember that administrators, OCTA, and fulfillment of school board member egos are more seen as more important uses of tax dollars by the school district than are the kids. They worry about the kids only after the teachers, admins and board members are taken care of.