Rye City School District Proposes Nearly $70 Million Budget

Rye School District Superintendent Ed Shine and District Business Manager Kathleen Ryan presented the first draft of the 2010-11 budget to the Rye Board of Education Tuesday.

With cuts in state funding and declining property revenue,  Shine and Ryan both laid out a very tough road ahead.

While there were some cost reductions, the overall picture was grim in light of some major state cutbacks.

"Not much of it is good by way of state dollars to support education, so as usual it turns on the support of the community," Shine said.

The $69.7 million proposed budget would increase by 1.32 percent in the 2010-11 school year, or $908,200 from last year's $68.8 million approved budget.

For property owners, that would translate into a 1.45 percent tax levy increase, or, if you factor in the assessor's predicted property assessment decreases, a 1.95 percent increase of the tax rate.

"We've had projections that the assessments would decrease in the last few years and that has not been what happened because the tax levy increased," Ryan said. "So it has been my experience that the assessments have been on the optimistic side."

One of the biggest costs the district is facing for 2010-11 is increased enrollment, of which the district has little control.

The elementary headcount will decline by 32 students, but the middle school will grow by 65 students and the high school will grow by 5 students.

"I thought what was most interesting is the recommended budget increases $21 on a per pupil basis," Board Member Edward Fox said.  "So expenses go up because we have more students than ever before, not because we are spending more than ever before."

Of course, a big hurdle the district is facing is the decrease in state aid proposed by the governor.  While Shine was quick to point out that the state only contributes 5 percent of funding, a proposed decrease of $303,100 for 2010-11 is a huge hit to the district.

"We don't control that, so if people have a problem they need to call their state legislature, because I'm not going to sit here and listen to anyone telling us that's a school board problem," Fox said.

While there were still many questions from the board, there was some optimism about what some board members viewed as a relatively low proposed budget increase.

"This budget is far from done," Board Member Bob Zahm said.  "But with several meetings to go, I'm impressed with this budget as compared to previous years at this point in time."

The next budget hearing will be held on March 23 and the budget will be adopted April 13.