Oswego Board Of Education Superintendent Provides Updates

By: Shea O’Malley

OSWEGO – The Oswego City School District Board of Education held its bi-weekly meeting on Tuesday evening, May 5, when it gave updates to how the district is responding to new state mandates.

Oswego City School District Superintendent Dean Goewey began the meeting with a moment of silence, followed by condolences for the families of Nancy Spilman-Coppola and Beth Sereno-Schickling, both of whom passed away recently.

Spilman-Coppola worked for the OCSD for 25 years and retired in 2016. Sereno-Schickling was a first grade teacher at Fitzhugh Park Elementary School for 34 years.

Goewey started with the Superintendent’s Report, covering a broad range of items listed below:

Superintendent’s Report:

• There will be a special board meeting on May 12 to approve resolutions for budget propositions, including the purchase of two seven-passenger SUV’s and one full-sized wheelchair.
• The re-establishment of a Capital Reserve, and a library vote.
• Changes that come with the latest executive order from Gov. Cuomo for smaller school districts: 

• • The continuation of school closures until the end of 2019-2020 school year.
  • Guidelines for school budget votes: all votes and board elections will occur on June 9. 
  • OCSD ballots must be finalized no later than May 11.

• • The deadline for school boards to adopt their budget is May 21 before the property tax cap filing. This will be significantly challenging for the Fulton, Oswego, Auburn, and Ithaca school districts. The final budget numbers will be received from the New York State Governor’s Office on May 15. 
  • Military ballots must be mailed on May 26.
• The budget hearing will be held on June 2, with notices mailed out immediately following.
• The next scheduled BOE meeting is May 19, leaving four days to complete the budget, after Gov. Cuomo’s May 15 budget proposal.

Other changes:

• Gov. Cuomo will make decision about summer school by May 15.
• Elementary school teachers will close classrooms, bag and label student material and create schedules for parents to report to the Elementary Schools to pick up student materials, while implementing social distancing and safety guidelines. Plans will be submitted to the superintendent.
• OCSD principles-grades seven through 12, will communicate with families to supply a schedule for students to empty their Phys-ed and regular lockers, while implementing social distancing and safety guidelines. Plans will be submitted to the superintendent.
• Parents received a robocall on May 5, discussing the emotional and social impact school closings will have on students, particularly graduating seniors. The Oswego High School are making plans to include:
  • A cap and gown pickup pick-up event planned by class advisors and Mr. Wallace.
  • All nine component school districts are planning for graduation ceremonies. Plans will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
• There will be a virtual National Honor Society Induction this Friday. Board members are invited to attend.

Phase III of Essential Learning:

• It will be largely remote
• The district has distributed hundreds of Chromebooks to families in need in order to take part in Phase III learning. 
• Phase III is a more intense, remote learning system. Parent and staff concerns voiced over the last few days include: 
  • Challenges associated with multiple kids in differing grade levels.
  • Parents working remotely from home.
  • limitations in Wi-Fi capabilities. 
• The superintendent is asking parents and children to not get overwhelmed; he is asking for students to do the best they can with the remote lessons.

Budget presentation:

• For the first time in recent history, the Legislative School Aid Fund was significantly smaller than the Governors Fund.
• There is a gap of $1.6 million between the 2019-2020 school budget and the 2020-2021 proposed budget. The gap result is a decrease in state aid and a reduction in revenue.
• Gov. Cuomo talked about three windows of time where he may ask for a variance from the State Legislature to bring school aid funds back to the state fund. 
• The state budget shortfall is caused by the extreme cost of the Corona virus on the state, affecting the state’s ability to build their own budget.
• Gov. Cuomo implied he may ask for 10-20% of the public-school aid back from schools. Indications point toward an 8-12 percentage range, potentially slated for May 15. 
• An additional $3.9 million gap will be added to the OCSD budget if the projected outcome is in the 12% range, resulting in an overall budget deficit of $5.5 million. 

What’s next:

• The school board must examine considerations for next year’s budget.  
• The OCSD must prepare and adopt a budget within six days of Gov. Cuomo’s budget proposal on May 15.
• OCSD’s budget reduction choices must have the least impact on learning.
• A budget workshop is scheduled for May 12, to be held during a special board meeting, and again on Monday, May 18 at 5 p.m..
• Budget workshops will be live during the budget hearing, including a dedicated phone line for public input.

School Board meetings are held the first and third Monday of every month.

Resolutions and other related documents can be found here.

The full video of the meeting can be found below.

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