[UPDATE]Pelham School Officials Present $65.5M Budget Proposal

Update, 1:15 p.m.

The Pelham school district has just sent a PDF file outlining all of the staff positions that would be changed in Superintendent Lauro's budget proposal. The staff chart is available in the PDF that is now featured with this article.

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Six teaching positions, two school administrative position, a school nurse and a custodian are some of the cuts in Pelham school's Superintendent Dennis Lauro's budget proposal for next year.

Lauro presented his $65,523,020 spending plan to the public during Monday night’s school board meeting. The plan represents a 3.69 percent increase from this year’s budget. The tax levy in the proposal, which stands at $55,469,987, represents a 2.99 percent increase from this year’s tax levy.

Homeowners would pay $18.37 per $1,000 of assessed valuation using the 2011 assessment rolls, which represents an increase of about 6.2 percent from this year’s rate. Commercial property owners would pay $24.14 per $1,000 of assessed valuation using the 2011 assessment rolls, which represents an increase of about 9.8 percent from this year’s rate.

“During my tenure as superintendent, there has been no other alternative, but to meet the demands of the recession, losses in state aid and increases in unfunded mandates, as well as increases in student enrollment,” Lauro said. “For the current year, state aid was reduced by $133, 873. Next year we are projecting a loss of $26,461. This is in addition to the reduction of the GAP elimination aid assessment to each district."

Lauro said the state’s reduction in GAP elimination assessments over the years cost the Pelham schools $980,000 in aid in 2010-2011 and $990,000 this year. He said cuts will cost the district $980,000 next year.

However, the district was able to spend over the state’s mandated 2 percent property tax cap thanks to a few exemptions.

“The formula recently submitted by the state Comptroller office gives a tax cap for our district of 3.03 percent,” Lauro said. “The higher rate is due to the exclusions permitted under the law to fund certain exempted expenses such as levying required to fund capital expenses and excess expenses in the teachers retirement system and the employees retirement system.”

Lauro also recommends that the district use $500,000 from the reserve fund dedicated to employee retirement system to lower the tax levy.

Still, more cuts are necessary in order for the district to stay within the state property tax cut, according to Lauro.

“Because schools are a people business, a reduction in staff was necessary to meet the level of savings required,” Lauro said.

Position that would be cut

• Four elementary school teaching positions, including one teacher who took a leave of absence before resigning, are being. The three other elementary school teachers would be cut from three sections in several grades with enrollments that were lower than projected this year. These sections will combined into two sections, which will eliminate the need for the three teachers, according to Lauro.
• The reduction of two high school teacher due to retirements. Their duties will be picked by the rest of the teachers in the high schools.
• The reduction of a school nurse and a custodian.
• The reduction of the district’s athletic director, who is leaving through retirement, and the district’s director of elementary education. Another administrator would assume the duties of the athletic director. The district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and personnel will assume some of the responsibilities of the director of elementary education with help of other staff members.

A copy of Lauro’s budget address can be found in the PDF to the right of this story.

The school board is scheduled to meet Saturday inside the Pelham Middle School Library 9 a.m.  to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. to do a line-by-line review of the budget. The session is open to the public.

The school board is scheduled to adopt a budget on April 16. District residents are scheduled to vote on the budget on May 15 in the main gym of the Pelham Memorial High School.