School Board Adopts Budget With 3.47 Percent Tax Increase

The Harrison Board of Education officially adopted it's 2010-11 budget Tuesday night. As it stands, the budget will raise taxes 3.47 percent and eliminate a total of 17 staff positions within the district.

"This has been, for me, the most difficult budget I've ever had to prepare," said Harrison Superintendent Louis Wool. "These were very difficult decisions, they required a lot of folks to rethink and reorganize. The good news is we did protect, as much as we could, the instructional integrity of our program."

Very little has been changed since the original budget was proposed two weeks ago. Although the tax levy increase within the district will increase only a fraction of a percent, the board said that plummeting property assessments and dwindling state aid created the 3.47 percent tax hike.

"A school board has no control of a tax rate, a school board controls spending, the tax rate is an artifact of the assessment value in the community," said Wool. "It's very important for folks to know that we do not control the tax rate."

The board emphasized several times that it can only control spending, and that drops in property assessment and state funding have made balancing this year's budget very difficult. Lost revenue for next year is expected to total $3.3 million, including an approximate $572,000 cut in state aid.

The adopted budget totals $101.1 million, with a spending increase of 1.6 percent. An accomplishment, according to Wool, because most cost increases, such as pensions and teacher salaries, are out of the board's control. He credited the minimal spending to a long term budgeting approach over several years.

"We have planned carefully for rainy days," said Wool. "But folks, I need to tell you, it's raining. It's a bit of a storm."

Almost all school programs will be spared by the budget cuts, however cuts to staff could not be avoided. The district will shed a fraction less than 17 total positions, but about half of those positions were already vacated by retirement. The board projects that between eight and nine current employees stand to lose their jobs if this budget it passed, most of them non-instructional workers.

"The hardest thing to do is to lay off people who are good employees, who work really hard," said Wool. "I don't want people to take for granted that there are 16.5 reductions in this budget, we do not have an organization that runs with excess employees so I wouldn't characterize any of these people as excess."

The exact number of people who will be laid off will remain in flux until the board knows how many staff members take a retirement incentive being offered by the district. That program, used in a similar way by the town board during its budget process late last year, provides an incentive for longer tenured teachers to retire, saving the district money. 

"The more people that take the incentive, naturally will result in fewer people losing their jobs," said Assistant Superintendent for Business Bob Salierno.

The budget will go to a public vote on May 18. Although the decisions have been difficult, School Board Vice President Dennis DiLorenzo said he in confident in the work the board has done.

"We have really been able to balance the needs of the tax payers and protect the program for our kids," he said. "I feel very good about the budget."