According to Superintendent Tim Mains, who was a guest last month on WRFA’s Community Matters program, Jamestown is facing a more than $5 million budget gap as it works to prepare a budget for the 2015-16 school year. Unless the state can deliver some serious financial relief for the district, Mains said its likely Jamestown will have to resort to cutting programs and positions to close the gap.

During the past several weeks, both Mains and members of the Jamestown Teachers Association have been lobbying state education and legislative leaders for more funding (their case for a significant increase is provided below). They say that as a high-needs district, Jamestown is getting far less funding compared to other similar districts across the state – to the tune of nearly $25 million a year. Because of that discrepancy, they say it’s only fair that the state deliver on the request of $5 to 7 million more in state aid for the 2015-16 school year.

The exact amount Jamestown is projected to receive in the tentative state budget is not yet known due to Governor Andrew Cuomo instructing the state education department to not release state funding runs until after the legislature acts on his education reform measures. However, the legislature and teacher unions across the state are against the governor’s plan,  which means its unlikely any action on the reforms will take place prior to the April 1 state budget deadline.

For the current 2014-15 school year, Jamestown received $56.77 million in state funding. That’s out of $22.15 billion that was earmarked for education spending in the 2014-15 state budget. This year, the state assembly want to increase state funding by at least another $1.8 billion and the senate wants a $1.9 billion increase. Without his reform package being approved, the governor has said education funding should go up by just $377 million.

Despite not having all the information needed due to the holdup in Albany, Thursday’s school board meeting is expected to focus on several options the district currently has to consider while finalizing next year’s spending plan.

Thursday’s board meeting begins at 7 p.m. the board’s finance committee also meets at 6 p.m. to specifically discuss the budget. Both meetings are in the school board room in the administration building and are open to the public.

JAMESTOWN’S CASE FOR SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN STATE AID

(provided by the Jamestown Teachers Association)

1. Jamestown has been cheated for years:

• Even before the Foundation Aid Formula was created, JPS was spending $4,000 to $5,000 less per student than comparable districts.  With 5,000 students we have gotten by with $20 to $25 million less than comparable districts each year!
• JPS spent less, because they got less from the state due to NY state’s highly inequitable school funding plans.
• Since the Foundation Aid was created, but then frozen, (about 6 years) JPS has lost over $118 million
• The Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) has taken another $13 million+ away from JPS over the past 5 years.
• So we should be getting about $25 million more per year than we do.

2. Jamestown has done all it can to balance its poorly funded budgets.

• We cut jobs – over 100 spread across all categories
• We cut programs – eliminating some altogether, reducing others  (For example, Art and Music are each something that elementary children only get once every 8 days.  In MS, they only get art and music two trimesters out of the twelve trimesters they have in middle school – once every two years)
• We closed a school – Rogers
• We drained our reserves hoping that the state would return to owning its responsibility to fund education.  Now there is less than $200,000 in unrestricted fund balance (for a district that spends $80 million a year).
• We are out of options.  Without a substantial increase in state aid, more massive cuts will be made to programs and personnel.
• To avoid financial insolvency, we have to risk academic insolvency.

3. As one of the poorest districts in the state, we need/deserve state intervention – this is about fairness and equity.

• We don’t have sufficient property wealth to support ourselves with property taxes and the income wealth is so low that folks can barely afford to pay their taxes.
• With a combined wealth ratio (CWR) of .266, we sit eighth from the bottom of the 676 school districts in NY state.
• We are in the poorest 1% of all school districts in NYS
• We currently get about 70% of our revenue from State Aid, but we should be getting 80-90%

4. Our representatives in the state legislature must secure $5 to $7 million more in funding for JPS this year to avert disaster.

• We’re not asking for the $25 million we deserve, but $5-7 million needed to keep going.
• Elimination of the GEA will actually put more $ in the budgets of Southwestern and Chautauqua Lake than in ours.  While we endorse the complete elimination of GEA, that will not provide enough additional revenue for JPS (only about $500,000).
• The Foundation Aid Formula provides greater support to poor districts and districts with poor students.  We need to see some of the Foundation Aid flowing back our way.
• Because we used $2.1 million from reserves last year, and because the reserves are now dry, we already start with a $2 mill whole in our budget.
• Add another $1.8 needed for contractual salary increases and we’re already up to a nearly $4 mill deficit.  That doesn’t account for the 4% increase in health care costs or the added expense of covering additional employees with health care because of the Affordable Care Act.
• To protect a district with a great reputation, we need the state to finally do what it has not done for years – provide enough equity to help us continue our work.
• Without substantial additional funding from the state ($5-7 mill) the Jamestown Schools and Jamestown community will suffer.

That from Jamestown school superintendent Tim Mains, who was a guest on WRFA’s Community Matters public affairs program on Thursday, Feb. 19.

Mains talked about several challenges facing the district as it prepares for the 2015-16 school year budget, including the fact that it is starting the process facing close to a $4 million budget gap.

“We proposed and passed a budget last year that relied on $2.1 million in reserve funds to make that budget work, so we closed the gap with the final little amount of reserves that we had. We have drained them now completely,” Mains said. “That means, all things being equal, we would immediately start preparing our budget for next year with a $2.1 million gap. If you take the amount of money we will need to pay our employees, just to comply with their contracts, that adds another $1.7 million dollars, so we’re almost $4 million in the hole before we even get out of the gate.”

Jamestown’s current 2014-15 school year budget was $75.8 million and Mains said that while the district is looking for ways to cut costs in this year’s budget to help prepare for next year, it’s unlikely a significant amount of savings can be found without making cuts to staffing, and that’s something district officials have already ruled out.  But Mains said the district has been exploring other options, although currently none appear to be able to bring in the amount of money needed to close the multimillion dollar gap.

Combine that with the challenge of not even knowing how much state aid the district will receive for next year due to a political power play by Governor Cuomo, who won’t release state aid runs until the legislature approves his education reform proposal, this current budget process may be the most difficult one the district has faced in recent memory.

Still, the Superintendent, who’s now in his second hear at the helm, hopeful that combined they can at least cut into the gap before he and the school board begin the process of looking at budget cuts and a possible tax increase.

Mains also said that there are things being done that could have a positive impact on the long-term financial outlook for the district, including the effort to bring more funding in from Albany.

Jamestown Public Schools Superintendent Tim Mains

“We’re engaged in the small city’s lawsuit, so we’re suing the State of New York to try and leverage and obtain what we believe is a fair and equitable amount of state aid that should be flowing to Jamestown,” Mains Said. “I’m also engaging in a lot of political lobbying to try and make sure that (State Senator) Cathy Young and (Assemblyman) Andy Goodell understand that unless we have a substantial increase in the state aid provided to Jamestown, we’ll be looking at severe cuts to both programs and personnel.”

Mains also said that the district will consider establishing an Education Foundation, which would serve a fundraising operation for non-essential school services – so those costs can be removed from the annual budget. He said more details on the foundation and how it would function will be revealed during next week’s school board meeting next Tuesday night.

As for the school’s finances, the state comptroller’s office had designated Jamestown as a district under moderate fiscal stress. Mains said that was based on information from last year. If the comptroller was to look at the district finances for this year, chances are Jamestown would be designated as a district under severe fiscal stress.

The Jamestown School board will continue to explore the financial challenges facing the district during next week’s meeting. It has until April 25 to finalize and approve a spending plan for next school year.

In Jamestown, the $75,768,676 budget passed by a vote of 322 to 86. A proposition to purchase several new buses also passed 336 to 72. There were three board seats up for election in Jamestown, but the incumbants ran unopposed. Being elected to new, 3-year terms were Paul Abbott, Shelly Leathers and Tom Pope.

Last month, the board of education approved a $75,768,676 budget that contains no tax increase.  Tonight’s hearing will give the public information, and offer the opportunity to ask questions, regarding the spending plan.

The Budget Vote and School Board Elections will be held next Tuesday, May 20, 2014 at Jefferson Middle School, Lincoln Elementary School and Washington Middle School from noon to 9 p.m.

Candidates for the 2014-15 school year are: Paul Abbott, Shelly Leathers and Tom Pope. The three already sit on the school board and they are the only residents running for the three open seats.

Anyone with questions about where they should vote should call the District Clerk at 483-4420.

More information on the school budget can also be found online at www.jamestownpublicschools.org and also in the Superintendent’s Office, 197 Martin Road from 8:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday’s public hearing begins at 7 p.m. in the Persell Middle School auditorium.

JAMESTOWN – Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education Tuesday night approved a $75,768,676 budget that contains a 0 percent tax increase.  The final vote was 6 to 1.

Heading into this week, the tentative budget contained a 1.31 percent increase, which would have been necessary to close a nearly $900,000 budget gap. However, on Monday night the board held a special work session and was able to rework the spending plan.

School superintendent Tim Mains explained on Tuesday night that the adjustments were made to the staff, budget and program lines to identify over $900,000, which helped to close the gap.

“There are two additional positions that we cut to half time,”Mains explained to reporters following the meeting. “We eliminated a program that we enjoyed here in the district for several years for accelerated learning – it’s an after school program that’s targeted to middle school students and that’s completely gone. We made some minor changes to other programs. The other big change which was part of the original package and remained in the final package is combining the two out of school suspension programs into one.”

Mains said that when officials met to finalize the budget, it became a top priority to eliminate any proposed tax increase…

“The board was very clear that they believe we needed to figure out how to do this with a zero tax increase – a flat tax levy,” Mains said. “So the biggest change is taxes are the same this year as they were last year and the year before that. This is the fourth year in a row that there has been no tax increase.”

Total spending for the 2014-15 budget is up .53 percent from the current year. But Board member Shelly Leathers noted that spending is actually up by 4.6 percent when excluding the debt service, which will be 25 percent lower next year – a savings of $2,488,800 – compared to this school year.

Board member Patrick Slagle gave the lone “no” vote. Following the meeting he explained he would have liked more time for consideration, since the most recent changes were made just the previous night. He said specifically, he would have liked to see the board reconsider an additional $300,000 that will be used next year for staff professional development.

“Common core is a very touchy issue and it’s given our teachers a lot more work to do so I understand that a lot more training is needed for teachers. Unfortunately I thought the proposed budget put too much into professional development.”

Slagle also made a motion to table the budget vote until Thursday night so board members could have more time to consider all options, but that motion was defeated 6 to 1.

PUBLIC COMMENT ON BUDGET

Approximately 40 people in attended and three spoke during the public comment, all addressing the budget.

One individual requested the board restore a certified occupational therapist assistant position back to full time. It was one of several positions either eliminated to cut to half time, as part of the effort to close the budget gap. However, school officials note that no layoffs are taking place, with all positions either being eliminated through retirement or attrition.

Two other individuals – one being Jamestown Police Captain Robert Samuelson – requested that the district not eliminate its evening Out of School Suspension (Night OSS) program. However, the program cut remained in the final budget, and Night OSS will not take place at Jamestown starting in September.

A Public hearing on the budget is May 13 and the budget vote will be May 20.

The tentative budget totals $73,875,000 includes $56.77 million in state school aid and calls for a spending increase of $500,000 over the current year. A recent draft of the spending plan also included a 1.31 percent property tax increase.

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Jamestown Public Schools’ board room at 197 Martin Road. It is open to the public.

While no agenda for the meeting was provided, it’s likely the purpose of the meeting is for school officials to finalize the 2014-2015 school budget. So far, the tentative budget totals $73,875,000 and includes a $500,000 spending increase over the current year. A 1.31 percent property tax increase is included in the tentative spending plan. Next year, the district will also see $56.77 million in state school aid.

Tonight’s meeting is only a work session meeting. School officials will act on the final budget during their regular school board meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in the Jamestown Public Schools’ board room at 197 Martin Road.

Both meetings are open to the public.

The remaining two-thirds would mostly be through staff reductions, which would save the district just over $400,000.  For the staff reductions, just one full-time position would be cut. The remaining positions would be retirements or part-time positions.  The full-time position would be a certified occupational therapy assistant. The remaining full-time positions involve three elementary teacher retirements and one guidance councilor retirement.

The final preliminary budget would total $73,875,000, which is an increase of about $506,000 from the current school year.

School officials say some small adjustments could be made before the vote it finalized. The board is expected to act on the budget during its April 22 voting session. A public hearing on the spending proposal will take place beforehand.

Last week, the district learned that the final state budget is providing an estimated $1.9 million more in additional revenue for the district, compared to what was in the governor’s initial budget proposal released in January. That brings the total amount of state aid for Jamestown to an estimated $48,000,000.

As a result of the final aid amount, the district is facing about a $600,000 budget gap. Tonight, school officials will discuss ways to close that gap. The meeting is open to the public and will begin at 6 p.m. in the school administration building on Martin Rd.

Mains said that while he was expecting an increase, he did not expect it to be as significant as what was presented in the final school aid run. He also added that while the increase will go a long way in offsetting a budget gap that is more than $2.5 million, he and the school board will still have to make some tough decisions.

Mains said this week, he and assistant Superintendent for Administration Dale Weatherlow, along with other members of his staff, will begin looking for ways to close the remaining budget gap. He says that will start with identifying accounting tools and program efficiencies that don’t affect full-time positions. But the superintendent said that unfortunately, positions cuts could also be a possibility.

Superintendent Mains said he will present the recommendations to the school board during its next meeting, which will take place on Monday, April 7 at 6 p.m. in the school administration building on Martin Rd.