Schools
Sewanhaka Adopts 2012-13 Budget Under Tax Levy Cap
District approves 2.2 percent levy increase, waiting on confirmation of state aid figures.
The Sewanhaka Board of Education approved the latest version of the 2012-2013 school budget during their regular meeting Tuesday night at .
“There were three basic themes that I took away from that evening,” Sewanhaka Superintendent Dr. Ralph Ferrie said, referring to the district's March 14 budget meeting. “Those three themes were: do everything we can to protect the outstanding programs we have in our district for our students. Two – do everything we can do to maintain the human resources throughout our district; in other words, the staff that we have in our buildings. And number three, do all of this and try to be as responsible as possible in terms of the tax rate in the communities. So that resonated very clearly to us.”
The amount of state aid expected to be received for the 2012-13 school year is $26,364,491, representing about a one percent increase from 2011-12. The district hopes to know whether this is the correct amount of state aid for the year by the end of this week, Dr. Ferrie said.
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The total budget for the 2012-13 school year is $167,033,832, provided that the state aid number is correct and that there will be a BOCES refund of $340,908.
If the state aid and/or BOCES information is incorrect, the board will have an emergency meeting on April 4 and continue to work on the budget.
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The tax levy is 2.2 percent, which is within the guidelines under the state’s 2 percent tax cap and requires only approval by a simple majority of voters on the May 15 ballot. The budget-to-budget increase is 2.94 percent.
The district's budget that was approved Tuesday night does not cut any programs and there will be no positions lost, Dr. Ferrie said.
“This is a responsible budget that still maintains staff and programs,” he said, expressing his concern about upcoming budgets noting that “it will be more difficult as we move forward.”
The superintendent cited as well as from the support staff and principal units this fall as helping the 2012-2013 budget.
"We will examine ways to get through the next two or 3 years," Dr. Ferrie said.
The district's annual budget hearing will be on May 1 at 8 p.m. in the Sewanhaka auditorium. The budget vote will take place on May 15.
