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Aid Increase A Plus For Dunkirk Schools

DUNKIRK — Adoption of a new state budget in Albany last week brought some welcoming news of a slight bump in aid to the Dunkirk City School District.

School officials, however, will still need “to take a dive in to the extra resources” in order to balance the district’s 2018-19 budget, according to Superintendent Dr. James Tracy.

Business Administrator William Thiel said the only revenue stream from the state that changed for the district was the Foundation Aid number. Thiel said they received $200,000 more than the previous year. Foundation aid supplements local funding for school districts to help provide sufficient resources for an adequate education.

For all other funding streams, Thiel said everything else stayed the same. State mitigation aid that the district receives due to the reduced payment in lieu of taxes from the NRG plant is expected to decrease from 70 percent to 60 percent in the upcoming school year.

“I’ve asked for clarification on that from Albany. That’s our belief that it continues on a 10 percent decrease,” Thiel said. “The number is what it is right now. We have to figure out how to work with it.”

As of March, 2019 estimates for NRG related revenue are at $2.4 million, which is down from just over $4 million in 2016. A renegotiated PILOT payment with NRG will only bring in $200,000 for the 2019 fiscal year.

While the state aid increase is small, Tracy said any revenue the district can take in will help offset the NRG plant and the money the district’s losing there each year. Final school aid numbers were one of the missing pieces to the district’s budget. With figures in hand, the budget work continues.

“This will be the first year that we’re going to really have to dive in to the extra resources that we’ve had in order to balance our budget,” Tracy said. “Fortunately we have a good business administrator. He and the board have done a good job leading us through this time.”

Last month’s budget report stated that in order to bridge the gap, fund balance will be consumed in a support of ongoing operations, and placing the district in a 2019 operating deficit. To date, 2018 actuals are running at breakeven.

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