The main topic of the meeting was how to resond to possible mid year cuts in state aid to the district. A $3.1m cut was included in a proposal by Governor Paterson. Seven of the nine Board members were present.

Assistant Superintendent of Finance Pacella said that mid year layoffs would save significantly less than the layoffs before the beginning of the school year. (The savings would be less than half.) The district has a fund balance of around $10m, $2m of which is already commited to this year's budget. The fund balance is well under the 4% limit.

The district administration has imposed a "soft freeze" on spending. Normally this occurs in April, but it has been moved up to next week until the situation with mid-year cuts is clear. An extra layer of approval is required for spending. Administration is assuming that the Board favors not cutting programs or staff at mid-year and the intention is to cope with mid-year cuts by spending from fund balance or utility tax revenues.

Board member DeMarco commented that personnel is the largest expense in the budget.

Board members Poppiti and Vessey commented that they favor trying to reduce staff through attrition as opposed to layoffs.

Pacella commented that the Union contract renogiations will occur this year will make scheduling difficult. The negotiations will start in January and that will push back the ability to have a sense of the budget in December.

DeMarco commented that it would not be fair to offer the same retirement incentive program that was offered to teachers last year.

Pacella replied that the administration was very sure that this incentive program was not a possibility for this year.

Board member Woodhull suggested revisiting the list of possible cuts from last year. This suggestion was positively received.

DeMarco commented that there was some talk about starting contract negotiation early.

Superintendent of Schools Saturnelli replied that that wasn't happening, and Board President Fucheck added that counsel had not recommended that.

The Board asked Saturnelli for additional comments. She replied that it would be best to address mid-year cuts by using fund balance, and she was thankful that the energy savings program and utility tax revenues would help.

Pacella commented that the utility tax had resulted in widely varying payments from New York State to the District($18k, $152k). He talked to the Middletown district (which has a similar tax) and they confirmed that the receive erratic deposits and a large payment at the end of the year.

Pacella asked the Board for their sense of targets for the the tax impact of next year's budget. The seven board members suggested tagets between 1 and 2 percent, with one suggested range as high as 3%.