COBLESKILL - At the regular CRCS Board of Education on Monday, Superintendent Matthew Sickles put forward the second draft for their next year’s budget.
He began the presentation by giving an overview of the first draft, where the projected budget gap lay at $1,931,114 in the red.
That first gap had several assumptions built into it to cover unpredictable factors, such as a 1% increase in Foundation Aid from the state, a 1.91% increase in the tax levy, rollover expenses, increased health insurance costs, and the facilities and maintenance vehicle replacement plan.
Now, the district has confirmed the tax levy limit calculation to be at an increase of $351,015, or 1.91%, and the overseeing committee has updated cost estimations and projections such as the TRS contribution rate, their property and liability insurance, and BOCES service costs.
They also reviewed and updated the department budgets for operations and maintenance, transportation, and teaching and learning, and further increased the use of the appropriated fund balance and restricted reserves by $484,068, which comes in at an increase of $204,068 over last year.
In total, the second draft projects a budget gap of $1,246,367, with their expenditures having a total increase of 3.2% from last year, while their revenues only increased by 0.59%.
Superintendent Sickles spoke about several strategies they could implement to further close that gap, noting that the district would first look at the revenues side of the budget before even thinking about cutting any of their expenditures.
One of the biggest unknown factors is CRCS’s program for sending students with special needs out-of-district while hosting other transferred students, as that impacts both sides of the budget.
“That process doesn’t usually line up to the budget process,” said Superintendent Sickles, who explained that they may not know those final numbers until the budget is set in stone. “That’s why it’s one of our most unpredictable areas.”
Once the numbers were revealed, Superintendent Sickles opened discussion with the Board and asked how they would like to tackle their fund balance and reserves, to which they unanimously thought to use more of their surplus to cover the gap.
“I think there’s some room there,” began Steven Philbrick. “We know these have been difficult budgets these last few years, and I’m not looking to see the fund balance go up. I’m not comfortable with it going down, but I’m looking to stay more level.”
Member Aimee Yorke agreed, saying “I don’t think our restricted reserves need to keep going up while we keep cutting. I think we should be using more of that excess.”
“I am in agreement with both of what Aimee and Steve said,” said Board President Bruce Tryon. “We’re getting lean and there’s no room for cuts. It’s getting tough.”
Superintendent Sickles offered some warning in eating more of their fund balance than saving, saying “We’re not deliberately growing these reserves. There’s so many factors that are difficult to predict that prevent us from budgeting to the dollar. There’s volatility in so many things.”
Despite the caution, however, both Dominga Lent and Jason Gagnon were on the same page as the rest of the members, and gave Superintendent Sickles the direction to keep looking into using those surpluses instead of looking toward cutting programs or pathways for students.