Rye School Officials Discuss ‘Painful Budget’ Process

The two percent tax cap and escalating health care, benefit and retirement costs are making this year’s budget process “painful,” school Superintendent Dr. Frank Alvarez said at last week’s board meeting.

Alvarez’s updated 2013-2014 proposed $76.6 million budget would require $2.3 million in cost cuts, which would impact 29 currently unidentified full time positions. The proposed budget represents a 4.18 percent increase (about $3 million) over the $2012-2013 approved budget.

Health care, benefit and retirement costs are expected to grow by $3.9 million in the next school budget year, and, combined with the tax cap and unfunded mandates, are the district’s largest challenges. The board emphasized the need for Albany to change the tax cap and unfunded mandates, especially for high-caliber districts like Rye.

School board president Laura Slack called the cap “punitive,” and also mentioned that enrollment is increasing, but that is not exempt from the tax cap. She elaborated that because of the increase in enrollment, the planned new building is necessary and that debt is exempt from the cap, but cannot be used for any other line item than for the construction.

“We trimmed a lot around the edges so it may not feel radically different last year but for sake of transparency I have to tell you it is not going to be business as usual,” Alvarez said. “There are going to be impacts in some areas and that is going to be felt…Times call for bold measures and we have constraints we have to live with it.”

The board is currently waiting to see how many teachers will take the retirement incentive they approved earlier this month and who might return from current leaves in order to figure out more finalized staff reductions.

“We are here because we believe in public education and we believe in public education in Rye and want to make this system the best it can be for the children of this city. These are very difficult things,” Slack said.

Slack also noted an educational foundation being formed to further support the district and its program. The foundation will be officially announced in the near future, she said.

The meeting also included an open topics forum, where the public broke into smaller groups to meet with board members to share their concerns, questions and feedback on the budget. The board members then returned to their dais and reported the key topics from their conversations to the larger group.

A summary of the topics, as well as responses prepared by Dr. Alvarez, will be posted on Patch as soon as it is received by the district.  

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The board will hold a special meeting on April 2 at 8 p.m. in the Rye Middle School multipurpose room. Prior to the meeting, the board will meet in Executive Session for the review of the employment history of current and prospective employees, negotiations pursuant to the Taylor Law, review of current litigation and litigation strategy.

On the agenda are fiscal, special education, personnel and business items that ordinarily come before the Board as well as further discussion of the 2013-2014 budget.  

Members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend this meeting of the Board and to speak during the public hearing on the budget