This was the seventh budget meeting. It started a little after 5pm. There was an audience of about 60, which dwindled down to two dozen after slightly more than two and a half hours. Board Members Resch and Giudice were not present.
Superintendent of Schools Saturnelli: gave a brief overview and said that given the amounts anticipated in NYS proposed budget, and the cuts so far, were at a point where bringing back certain items was being considered. Task is to find most cost effective way to provide the most services.
Board President Fucheck: added that nothing is final until the budget itself is voted on.
Assistant Superintendent of Finance Pacella: said that the current budget proposal represents about $8m in cuts, and is below last years budget. Due to cuts in state aid, this is necessary [to prevent a dramatic tax increase]. Contingency budget calculations may change to use a 4 year average CPI--that would allow the contingency budget to call for a $9m increase. Under a no vote "according to council" there could be a big increase ($14M). You're well under the austerity budget numbers.
Pacella: couple of recommendations and topics for discussion
B/34 Staffing community/SRO officers and both campuses of NFA. The city has agreed to put back the police officers at secondary schools in the district for the remainder of this year. City council has not approved agreement for 2010-2011. Recommending to allocate $200k.
Consulting with Leahy and Diana, but mainly waiting on City. Considering County officers, they would have wider jurisdiction than just the city. There's general agreement that everyone would like to see the City officers there.
Board Member Bowles: regardless of who funds these positions, they have to be funded.
Saturnelli: they do work on overtime for the city but do full time work for the district. For this year they will start on April 6; for next year will have to see. County is a logical alternative if city can't do it.
Pacella: situation is complicated because city has already completed budget cycle, and because of economy little chance of new rooky officers. Would like the veteran officers but rookies are sufficient for the District's purpose.
Board Member Woodhull: [talked to a CRO who really want's to get back "to find out what is going on"]
Fucheck: Vote on adding 200k to 10/11 budget for purpose of SROs: all Yes.
Pacella: Item C/33 per recommendation of Popitti K-2 literacy program needs to be dicussed. Analysis provided by Dr. Noriega. Cost is $316,175.
Board Member DeMarco: talked about K-2 last week but sheet is about Pre-K, K, 1.
Pacella: cost is for K-2. Analysis is for the K-1 program.
Saturnelli: K-2 showed the most improvement from beginning to end of program.
Board Member Popitti: [calculating the cost 300k, for 500 or 600 students for 5 weeks, the cost is about 100 per student. Providing good bang for the buck.]
Saturnelli: the ones who attend are the most needy, are recommended by teachers.
Bowles: How many students are recommended to the program and attend out of that?
Saturnelli: don't have at hand, but can get that.
Bowles: [suggests bubbling until see what else we are ready to put back in]
Vote on restoring K-2 literacy program: eBowles, Vesely, Woodhull, Fucheck: Bubble; Popitti, McAfee, DeMarco: Yes. So: bubbled.
Pacella: have to adopt budget by April 23.
Pacella: Item D/34 three additional health aides for TH, MH, and GAMS at a cost of $145,341.
Woodhull: brought this back because nurses in these buildings are seeing up to 60 kids a day. This does not include physicals and health checks. Things can get very hectic in that office and having an extra person is worth its weight in gold. So requesting we put back the two health aids, and one is a move from Renwick to GAMS.
Pacella: in each of those office there is a nurse, health clerk, and aid. There'll still be two people there now. This would add a third.
Popitti: TH has four there now.
[Some confusion about numbers, seems all three schools are staffed with 2 and 2 now. So the change would maintain those numbers.]
Woodhull: needs have grown dramatically. I think we're shortchanging the kids.
DeMarco: why were they voted out? I didn't vote them out.
Vote to put back three Health Office Aide positions. Popitti: Bubble. All others: Yes.
Pacella: Item E/36 options for attendance department have been prepared for discussion by Pizzo, Jensen, and Sturnelli.
Jensen: district currently has 5 attendance teachers. Three are district wide and work out of the registration office. Two are assiged at NFA in the SAVE and SAC rooms. One has submitted for retirement (works out of registration office). So what do we do.
(1) Abolish retiree, move two at NFA into registration office. (2) Replace retiring teacher with new hire or (3) don't replace at all. Option 4: replace the retiree with 2 aides, pair them up with the 2 full time from registration and have them focus on home visits and specific tasks.
Fucheck: option 4 would leave the two people at NFA?
Jensen: correct. Would cause the least disruption. Would still realize a savings of $52k. Already have identified individuals on the recall list.
Pizzo: [brings up some kind of stipend issue]
DeMarco: very much in favor of option 4, with Jensen's supervision.
Bowles: are we rewriting job descriptions. Can one [job category] not do home visits.
Saturnelli: according to description aide would not do unless paid stipend.
Fucheck: Vote on option 4 for attendance monitors: all Yes.
Pacella: item 35, 27 lunch monitors, distributed unevenly, some schools have none, was proposed to take out 27. Now recommendation is to retain the positions but redistribute them. Asking to have those 27 still work hourly and we'll come up with a plan to reddploy. At a cost of $217k.
Fucheck: Vote on restoring lunch monitors: Popitti, McAfee, Fucheck: Bubble. Bowles, Vesely, Woodhull, DeMarco: Yes.
Pacella: item 37, per recommendation of Bowles, revisiting the topic of Social Workers and Guidance Counselors.
Bowles: there's a multitude of things that Guidance Counselors will do, but they will not walk the streets. They will not go out into the streets and get those children. I would like to see some of those Social Workers put back.
DeMarco: wants to bring up things that were budgeted for, but not yet spent for this year in the Curriculum and Instruction budget. Ex. Standardized testing budgeted 250k available balance $207k.
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Forgit: believe we will spend quite a bit of that.
DeMarco: initial budget almost $2m, available balance still $953k. How much will we still have? Perhaps we could use that money for our Social Workers.
Pacella: really two separate issues. Bulk of unspent is textbooks, which is likely to get spent. Unspent money goes into fund balance. Then, you have the option of using fund balance to reduce tax levy. First build the budget, then consider using fund balance.
Fucheck: can we have jobs descriptions for Guidance Counselors, Social Workers, and attendance? [Leimer provides them.]
Popitti: agree with Bowles, Social Workers had intent to get out into community and help disadvantaged kids. Guidance and Psychologists may have gone to school with loftier goals. [Goes on to disparage goals of Guidance Counselors and Psychologists.]
Board Member McAfee: thought plan involved a change in Job Description of Guidance Counselors.
Pacella: we handed out a pamphlet about community based organizations that provide counseling services. The counselors would be putting that together with the reconfiguration of Curriculum and Instruction. Consolidating under C&I executive director position. More communication between all departments involved, and the Guidance Counselor job descriptions would be looked at, modified if needed.
Bowles: I hear all you're saying, but in reality it's not going to happen [things will get lost in the shuffle].
Pacella: there was a lack of management.
Fucheck: if that was so, then we don't know how more effective the Social Workers might have been, with benefit of management.
McAfee: I agree that we didn't get what we wanted before, and we wanted to see things change.
Pacella: no coordination between departments, that was the issue.
Bowles: Guidance Counselors and Social Workers do two different things.
Forgit: There will be a gap in services on the part of Social Workers if there is a reduction. [if we reduce the number for any position there will be a reduction in services]. This isn't about the job being done by individuals [it's a question of organizing so as to be most effective].
Pacella: it does save money. Starts to address need of Special Ed testing with psychologists [refers to some audit]. [Idea that Guidance Counselors at elementary levels might curtail some behavior problems at middle level.]
Bowles: would like to see Social Workers at the elementary level.
DeMarco: from the original savings of $352k we added 2 Counselors, so is savings at around $178K? Could we apply that to Social Workers?
Popitti: [thinks Social Workers fit the needs of students better at elementary level]. Don't need a roadmap to get from 2nd to 3rd grade.
Pacella: 170k savings will cover 1.7 Social Workers.
Fucheck: how about Social Workers instead of Guidance Counselors?
Pacella: Social Workers around 100K, Guidance Counselors around $75k.
Woodhull: agree with Grace [Bowles]. Social Workers are what we need at elementary level.
McAfee: asks that Forgit summarize the plan.
Forgit: we are in need of additional psychologists based on mandates and regulations. If we go to just Social Workers or reduce Guidance Counselors will have a gap. Both do important jobs. Guidance counselors at all levels would help with academics and some counseling issues [have to implement RTI by year 2012]. For family issues would go in direction of Social Workers. Decision was to go in one direction and explore grants and other community agencies. If you ask what I need, need Psycholgist staff, Guidance staff, and Social Worker staff. Goes back to financial situation. Financial situation was a factor.
[discussion of numbers and savings, currently in budget is 4 Psychologists and 6 Guidance Counselors]
Bowles: I would forego K-2 summer school literacy program to keep Social Workers intact.
[Discussion of planned allocation of 6 Guidance Counselors to elementary. All new hires.]
Saturnelli: If you put all the Social Workers back, then put in 4 Psychologists, and as many Guidance Counselors as you can to come up with same amount of money...
Pacella: 10 Social Workers is $1,008,561. 4 Psychologists is $384,471. 4 Guidance Counselors is $305k.
Fucheck: we're adding six Guidance Counselors?
Pacella: for six, $450k.
Popitti: to bring back the Social Workers is about $1m. To bring back the Social Workers and not add the new Guidance Counselors is about $600k.
DeMarco: can they work with 10 Social Workers, 4 Psychologists, and 4 Guidance Counselors. Will the services be met?
Forgit: yes.
Pacella: that would be about $850k addition.
Fucheck: to put all 10 Social Workers back, and take out 2 Guidance Counselors (keeping 4) will cost $850k.
Woodhull: asks for a recalc of tax impact.
Pacella: 2.39% tax impact without using fund balance. Amount being added back is $1,360,341.
Vote on adding 10 Social Worker positions and remove 2 Guidance Counselor: all Yes.
Pacella: only significant bubbled item is K-2 summer school.
Vote on adding K-2 literacy program at cost of $316k. Popitti, Vesely, DeMarco: Yes. Bowles, Woodhull, McAfee, Fucheck: No.
Pacella: formal meeting in April is after deadline set by law.
DeMarco: would like to send central office back. Give a dollar amount to reduce by, $300K, $400k.
Popitti: thinks we could do that.
Bowles: would like for athletic budget to be looked at. Coaching stipends $375k, coaching salaries $67k.
Pacella: salary is for the trainer, stipends is for all the coaches.
DeMarco: Twilight Program. Are we over budget there?
Pacella: Yes, at NFA mainly because of ninth grade accepted there. Had to add staff.
Fucheck: potential for change there, but not before budget must be set.
Additional Budget Workshop Thursday April 15. And look to adopt budget at Budget Workshop meeting scheduled for April 20.
Pacella: don't need to decide about fund balance until ready to do levy.
[Discussion about review of Schedule J stipends. Board has summary information.]
At about 7:30pm the library budget was reviewed.
Director of Newburgh Free Library Verdibello: library budget is around $4m. Proposition the public votes on is for the tax levy in contrast to school district number, which is the budget amount. State aid to libraries reduced. Project we will only spend $3.9m this year, slightly less than budgeted $4m. Expect to use around $300k from fund balance for next year.
Pacella: may want to modify number [with current number default budget would be nearly the same]
Verdibello: [will look to incorporate a 1 or 2% increase and reduce spending of fund balance]
At around 7:45pm meeting adjourned to executive session to review employment history of a particular person. Board will not take action after.