Schools Brace For Possible Cuts

Chuck Pegan has been through this before, but just not as extreme.

When the economy gets rocky, he said schools are often forced to freeze their spending and limit the purchase of supplies and other materials.

''If you don't have a purchase order in there now, forget it,'' the former school superintendent and Chautauqua County School Boards Association executive director would tell his department heads and staff.

Now, with the potential for schools across New York state to see a decrease in the amount of aid promised to them to help combat the state's economic woes, school officials are taking a hard look at what is needed and what is not.

''You look at things that are nice but not essential,'' Pegan said of what could get be cut.

The scene now is much different than a few years ago. Under former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, schools were given the biggest aid increase in state history, including a record $1.8 billion increase this year. Districts in Chautauqua County were all scheduled to receive more than a 3 percent increase from the 2007-08 school year.

''We are very disappointed that the whole economic picture has turned so radically from a year ago,'' Pegan said. ''A year ago we received record aid in almost all districts, and this was very helpful in that it helped us to improve our programs and make improvements in our technology and our security systems and all that.''

POSSIBLE CUTS

If the state Legislature does decide to cut aid to districts, schools could look at eliminating non-essential bus runs and field trips, and possibly cut programs and staff.

''It's a scary time because we don't know what's going to happen,'' said Tom Schmidt, Sherman Central School superintendent. ''When they walk in and say, 'We're going to take away 3 to 10 percent (of aid) depending on the district,' that makes it very difficult.''

Sherman, according to Schmidt, is estimated to lose almost $167,000 in aid, and school officials have already frozen spending and cut back on expenses. He said ''major cuts could come from programs and programs mean people, and that's what we're trying to avoid.''

''For all of us, it's going to be a painful experience that we hope doesn't affect the education of our programs,'' Schmidt said.

Meanwhile, at Clymer Central School, this year has been a learning experience for superintendent Scott Smith. In his position for about seven months, Smith said he wasn't expecting to become so immersed in the financial part of running a school district.

''It's created a very steep learning curve,'' Smith said. ''It's caused me to spend much more time on the dollars and cents of the operation than I ever anticipated going in.''

Like most other districts, Clymer school officials are also keeping a close eye on their expenses and conserving energy to keep costs low.

''We've not frozen our budget for the 2008-09 school year at this point in time,'' Smith said, ''however we will await any word out of Albany ... whether there will be any specific mid-year cuts that are enacted.''

JAMESTOWN'S HIT

In the largest district in the county, Jamestown Public Schools superintendent Deke Kathman said his district could lose around $1.4 million in aid.

''Our read is that this is not going to be a long negotiation in Albany,'' he said. ''Hopefully, it will be resolved in a relatively short order.''

Kathman said the district has frozen spending in some areas, such as the purchase of non-essential supplies, to help deal with the issue.

''We've slowed down some of our purchasing,'' he said. ''We expect that we will have to tighten our belts.''

While the district, under Ray Fashano, had prepared for such an event, Kathman said any cuts would still be devastating.

''While the governor tried to adjust or equalize the pain, his attempts didn't work,'' he said. ''The range was from a 3 percent hit ... to a 10 percent hit by more wealthy districts.''

Kathman has also sent a letter to Gov. David Paterson voicing his displeasure with the possible aid cuts and the impact they may have on the Jamestown district.

''As you can readily see, the impact of your mid-year school aid cuts, as presently configured, only continue and exacerbate the school aid inequities already plaguing our state system,'' Kathman said in his letter. ''Pressure to raise already burdensome property taxes in low-wealth and high-need school districts will only grow, while some wealthy districts continue largely unaffected.''

LONG-RANGE PLANNING

Brent Agett, Falconer Central School business manager, said if aid is cut, it will affect how schools prioritize their budget process.

''I think it's definitely going to affect our current year's expenditures and how we're going to plan for future budgets and such,'' Agett said. ''We did have some preparation. Even looking at last year's numbers I was thinking we may not have the increases we were projected to get over the next few years. We tried to take that into consideration when developing our budget.

''It's not going to get any better than this, I don't think,'' Agett continued. ''It's still going to hurt us. I thought we were going to get what we got this year. We were kind of leery about subsequent years and tried to at least make some considerations for that.''

Falconer has set limits on purchases, Agett said, but it is still difficult to cut back on spending with the many unfunded mandates, such as health insurance, imposed on districts by the state.

''It's difficult for us to stomach that they're going to take money away from us when they're requiring us to do these things,'' Agett said. ''It's difficult to stomach, but you've always made allowances for those types of things in your budgetary process. You'd hope they would do something to offset those mandates at a time when they're decreasing your funding.''

ELECTIVES COULD GO

Schools could be forced to cut electives, Pegan said, because non-mandated items could be the first area where districts look if they need to cut.

''I think you can watch for schools cutting arts and music, maybe instead of having three bands, you have two bands,'' Pegan said. ''It depends on the district and the values of the people in that district, because if you start talking about the music program, you're going to have music parents sitting in your board rooms saying, 'Why the music program?''

Cutting staff would probably be a last resort, Pegan said.

''Each district will have to look at what it has to cut, and obviously staff and fringes are the biggies,'' he said. ''I mean, they make up 70 percent of the budget approximately. So if you really have to cut, you have to cut staff.''

And, Pegan said, if assistance doesn't come from the federal, state or local governments, then it could come from the taxpayers.

''We know that we're already one of the highest taxed areas in the state,'' he said. ''There are districts that have a much easier tax burden because they have a lot of wealth behind each kid. We do have a couple of districts ... that because of the (Chautauqua) lake property, (their) tax burden isn't as great. So the impact of an aid cut on Bemus Point or Chautauqua Lake will not be as great as in Sherman or Panama or Forestville, where they're really dependent on the state aid.''

Pegan said schools in the region will have very difficult decisions to make if state aid is reduced.

''What's going to happen is that the taxpayers are going to be faced with a choice - the choice is do we maintain programs that we have, the staff that we have, or do we cut,'' he said. ''Because I think it's pretty clear that the Governor is sincere when he says that everyone is going to feel this, going to feel the pinch.

''(Taxpayers) need to understand that we (districts) didn't intend for it to be this way,'' Pegan continued, ''and they're going to have to make some pretty tough choices.''

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