The third budget meeting was on February 18. There were two significant decisions. Summer school offerings were reduced. There is to be no elementary program; only programs targeted to students needing specific requirements in order to be admitted to ninth grade or to graduate. Secondly, full day Pre-K was eliminated for next year. These decisions are contingent upon the budget being finalized and approved by the Board. Click through for meeting notes.

The Times Herald-Record reports that in the Valley Central School District parents and community members received printed information about proposed cuts, and parents and eductors were asked to help prioritize them.

Valley Central parents asked to prioritize
By Meghan E. Murphy
Times Herald-Record
Posted: March 02, 2010 - 2:00 AM

MONTGOMERY -- Parents and community members got a list they've been waiting for Monday that detailed possible cuts to Valley Central schools.

The district needs to find about $5.2 million in savings to compensate for state aid reductions and contractual budget increases. The district already held meetings in Maybrook to inform parents about the possibility of closing the community school or restructuring elementary schools, which could save about $1.6 million.
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The six-page list included more cuts than the district needs to make but Hooley asked parents to prioritize. In a roundtable, educators and parents listed things they want to keep: full-day kindergarten, small class sizes, middle school teachers and a balance of extra-curricular activities such as music.
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The Watertown Daily Times reports that New York State Schools will be working with a much more restrictive contingency budget cap this year. It will not allow for 3 or 4 percent growth as it did in recent years...

Contingency budgets face stark limits for 2010-11
By Jamie Munks
Thursday, February 25, 2010

Public school officials warn voters every year that if they vote down the budget, a contingency budget will be adopted that could eliminate or reduce equipment purchases and free community use of buildings.

But the warnings usually are hollow: the state's formula for school budgets --using the U.S. Consumer Price Index -- has in the past allowed contingency budgets to almost mirror defeated budgets because the index has risen most years.

Not this year. The index declined from 3.8 percent in 2008 to minus 0.4 percent in 2009. That means contingency budget constraints will be tighter than usual, and school districts will have to face making reductions in programs, staffing and equipment purchases if budgets are defeated.

"This is the first time in a long time that the CPI has been a negative number or zero; it's always been a little bit of an increase year to year," said Barbara O. Greene, director of finance for the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

"It will become challenging for schools."
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For additional details on how the contingency cap is based on the CPI see this post at the EdVANTAGE Blog.

This situation was anticipated by Governor Paterson. The 2010-2011 Executive Budget Briefing Book proposed preventing the cap from being less than the previous year's spending:

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Contingency Budget Calculation. This proposal would prevent mandatory negative spending growth for school districts that are operating under a contingency budget by limiting the spending cap calculation to no less than the previous year's spending levels. The current statutory provisions for the calculation of the contingency budget cap does not account for a period of deflation, which may apply to the 2009 calendar year.
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The second budget meeting was on February 4. I missed most of these meeting, so just have a few notes from this one. Click through for meager notes.

The first of several Newburgh School Districtbudget meetings occurred. A big spreadsheet was presented reviewing staffing levels at each school. The changes were not very dramatic except for those at Heritage Junior High.

Click through for the detailed notes.

The New York Times reported yesterday that Governor Paterson is "withholding" some school aid payments. The Newburgh School District can probably weather the immediate effect of this because the utility tax will bring in some income, the general fund has a surplus "fund balance", and the surplus can be spent as the Board wishes because the budget passed. It's unclear what the long term effect of this withholding of aid will be. If the state eventually makes the payments, the current step seems like grandstanding. If this ends up being an true permanent reduction in aid, the effect will be to substantially reduce the Newburgh School District's ability to cope with next year's budget--where "cope" means "minimize layoffs of teachers".

Paterson Trims Aid to Schools and Localities
By Kareem Fahim
Published: December 13, 2009

Gov. David A. Paterson announced on Sunday that he would unilaterally withhold $750 million in scheduled payments to schools and local governments, saying that strong action was necessary to protect New York State from insolvency.

The reductions of 10 to 19 percent in aid will affect schools and social service providers, health insurance payments, cities and counties. Mr. Paterson said the withheld funds were not "a cut" or an "impoundment" -- perhaps drawing a legal distinction because only the Legislature is empowered to make permanent budget cuts.

Some lawmakers called the move illegal, but the governor said "we are well within the bounds of legal authority."

The governor did not indicate when he would restore the funds, except to say, "as sufficient revenues become available."
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The EdVANTAGE Blog covers this issue well

State Senator Larkin, and several other visitors were at this meeting. A brief on the district financial audit and a presentation on tax issues were given. Two public comments raised issues at Temple Hill.

See details in the long version.

For additional details, please see, the official minutes of the September 29, 2009 meeting from the Newburgh School District Clerk. The minutes are very good.

Two weeks ago Governor Patterson proposed mid-year budget cuts in New York school aid. The press release for the proposal is here.

The proposed cut for the Newburgh School District is is $3,169,262. That is a reduction in aid of %2.59, or a reduction in %1.4 of the total school district budget. These numbers are from page 48 of a district by district report available at www.budget.state.ny.us.

There could be a significant impact on employees the Newburgh School District. The district has around 1,750 full time staff.

The mid-year cuts need the approval of the New York State legislature to be put into effect.

The EdVANTAGE blog has an informative post.

The recent Times Herald-Record article about school taxes implied a dramatic increase in tax for the City of Newburgh. However, that is not really what taxpayers are likely to experience. At the September 29 Newburgh Board of Education meeting there was a presentation by John Wolham of the New York State Office of Real Property. He explained how the tax rates are computed for different municipalities based on assessed values and an equalization rate.

His presentation included numbers showing the actual amount of the Newburgh School District tax levy assigned to different towns.

So what threw the Record's computations so far off?

The City of Newburgh went through a property reassessment last year and the total "Taxable assessed value" of property subject to school tax dropped significantly, from $1.58 billion to $1.32 billion. So a property valued at $200k last year was most likely to have been assessed at a lower value this year. At the Newburgh Board of Ed meeting, Steve Reulke, the assessor for the City of Newburgh, commented that the average decline was around 17%.

Today the Times Herald-Record has an article with data about the actual changes in tax rates. For the full article, please see Homeowners face mixed bag in school Taxes by Paul Brooks and Meghan E. Murphy.

The printed article does not include the rates from all four of the municipalities which pay Newburgh School District Taxes. In an Excel spreadsheet available from the THR site there is more complete data.

The THRecord explains their data this way: "The numbers in the accompanying chart are for a $200,000 property after applying property assessments and district tax rates for the respective town and district. Tax bills for other assessments will vary, and other factors such as exemptions are excluded."

Here is a summary of the Newburgh School District data:

If you find this interesting, you should review this letter from the NECSD Assistant Superintendent of Finance, which was posted to the Newburgh School District web site earlier this month. Key points:

The change in your taxes is a result of either a change in your property's assessed value, a change in the New York State Office of Real Property Services (NYSORPS) equalization rate or, a reduction in your STAR exemption amount. None of these factors are controlled by the School District.

[...]

There will be a public presentation by NYSORPS at the regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 7:00 PM to explain the taxation process.

If you have questions regarding your assessed values, please contact your local Assessor's office. For questions regarding the equalization rates, please contact NYORPS. For questions regarding your STAR exemption, please contact your local legislator.