Mayfield schools could lose most non-mandated 
When he presents his preliminary 2012-13 budget to the Board of Education, Superintendent Paul G. Williamsen will recommend the following program cuts:
February 17, 2012
The preliminary 2012-13 school budget that Mayfield Superintendent Paul G. Williamsen presents to his Board of Education this spring will have some glaring omissions. Athletics and extracurricular activities will be completely gone, and there will be far fewer opportunities for Mayfield students to take art, music, French, business and Advanced Placement classes as the district tries to fill a projected $2.3 million budget gap.
“This is the third year in a row we’ve had to make difficult decisions,” Williamsen said. “We’ve already made the easy cuts—supplies, equipment, energy costs. All that’s left to cut are the non-mandated programs and services that provide our students with a well-rounded education.”
Rising costs, limited revenues
Williamsen says the district’s contractual costs—including employee health insurance, employer pension contributions and longevity-based salary increases—are going up approximately 6 percent next year. However, Mayfield’s state aid is projected to increase just 0.6 percent, or $50,402, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive state budget proposal.
The district is also limited by New York’s new property tax levy “cap,” which requires a higher threshold of voter approval for school budgets that call for tax levy increases above a district’s calculated tax levy limit. Williamsen projects that Mayfield’s maximum allowable tax levy—the highest tax levy the district can propose and still pass a budget with a simple majority of voters—would be 2.5 percent higher than the 2011-12 tax levy. If the district proposes a budget that requires more than a 2.5 percent tax levy increase, the budget would require approval by 60 percent of voters.
If the district raises taxes up to its “cap,” Williamsen says that Mayfield will have a $2.3 million gap between its projected revenues and expenditures.
Williamsen says he will recommend to the Board of Education that the district use $1 million in unappropriated fund balance to help fill the budget gap, leaving Mayfield with the maximum fund balance allowed by the state. He will also recommend that the district apply $350,000 from its debt service account to help pay for the local share of the 2004 capital project, leaving an additional $350,000 in the account to be used by the end of the 2013-14 school year.
Fund balance balancing act
One reason Mayfield will have $1 million in its fund balance to use next school year is that the district received two years’ worth of back tax payments from the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District this fall. Williamsen also ordered a district-wide spending freeze on Oct. 1, and he says the mild winter has helped Mayfield save money on snow removal, overtime for buildings and grounds employees, and heating costs.
Williamsen says he will not recommend that the district completely exhaust its fund balance in order to save programs. The district realized the importance of having a healthy fund balance earlier this year when a pipe in the high school burst and required immediate repairs, and a boiler in the high school needed emergency maintenance.
“Things come up that we have to take care of, just as we do in our homes,” Williamsen said. “Our fund balance is meant to be used like a family’s emergency savings account—that money is available for one-time expenditures, not recurring payments. It would be irresponsible of us to pay operating expenses like salaries out of our savings account, just as you wouldn’t want to use your savings to cover your mortgage or car payment—you’d only do that as a last resort.”
At the very least, Williamsen said the district must reserve $372,036, which is the amount owed by the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District for its 2011-12 school taxes. Since the regulating district has yet to resolve its own revenue problems, Williamsen says he is not optimistic that the regulating district will be able to pay its school taxes this year.
“When it comes to developing a school budget in this economy, we really have to try to find a balance between maintaining our savings and cutting programs,” Williamsen said. “Exhausting our savings to save programs might preserve them for one year, but we won’t be able to go back to the well once the well has run dry. Plus, using up our savings leaves us financially vulnerable when emergency situations arise, like we saw earlier this year.”
Limited options
Even after dipping into the district’s reserves, Mayfield would still face a nearly $1 million budget gap heading into the 2012-13 school year. Williamsen says the district has very few choices in how it can fill the gap.
Mayfield is currently in negotiations with its teachers’ and support staff unions, whose contracts expire at the end of the 2011-12 school year. Williamsen says he’s planning on budgeting for the employees’ longevity or “step” increases, which will take effect in 2012-13 whether or not a new contract is approved—a provision of the Triborough Amendment to New York State’s Taylor Law.
Mayfield also has the option of proposing a budget that calls for a tax levy increase that is above the district’s calculated maximum allowable tax levy, which would require 60 percent voter approval. However, in order to close the budget gap using taxes, Mayfield would have to increase its local tax levy by more than 20 percent—an option that Williamsen says he will not recommend to the Board of Education.
The district’s only other option for closing its budget gap is to eliminate or reduce programs and services. Williamsen says he will recommend the following cuts:
- Eliminate all interscholastic athletics
- Eliminate all extracurricular activities
- Possibly eliminate French as a foreign language offering
- Revert from full-day to half-day kindergarten
- Reduce art and music instruction at both the elementary and high schools
- Reduce business electives at the high school
- Reduce Advanced Placement classes at the high school
- Reorganize special education programs district-wide
- Reduce guidance office services at the high school
- Reducing student support services
- Reduce mechanical services in the transportation office
“I don’t want to have to make any of these cuts, since all of these programs are valuable to the academic, physical and emotional well-being of our students,” Williamsen said. “However, under New York State law, they’re not mandated, and with a budget as tight as ours will be, we have to prioritize the programs that we’re legally obligated to provide.”
The Mayfield Board of Education will continue its deliberations about the 2012-13 budget during its next budget workshop at 5:30 p.m., Monday, March 5, in the high school upper library.