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The Jamestown Board of Education has approved an $89,879,178 budget for 2021-22 with no program cuts and no tax levy increase.
The only major changes to the budget are some programs being reclassified from local funds to a special aid fund that is paid for through CARES Act funding. Those programs include two new school psychologists, an increase in the number of contracted social workers, an increase in substitute teacher rates, music equipment, music travel, athletic equipment, athletic uniforms and technology equipment.
"Looking at our program budget we saw our largest increase," said Brittnay Spry, district business executive. "It is an overall increase of about $3.3 million. … As we had mentioned earlier, this is the area where most of the funds will be pulled from that the CARES Act is currently encumbered will be moving into that special aid fund."
The budget includes a community navigator, two new school psychologists, an increase in contracted social workers, a reading and literacy coordinator, music equipment, music travel, athletic equipment, athletic uniforms and technology equipment. The community navigator is a new position to help provide a connection between JPS' Latino population and the district. Due to language barriers or other reasons, JPS' Hispanic population has expressed a desire to have a person who has a solid connection to the Latino population and can speak Spanish, to act as a liaison between the schools and the community.
Paul Abbott, school board president, gave credit to members of the board's Finance Committee -- Shelly Leathers, Patrick Slagle and Joe Pawelski -- during a year that has seen the tone of budget talks progress from dire to a budget that didn't increase taxes and kept programs the same.
"The view has improved a little bit," Abbott said.
"I know a lot of work went into it and I know a lot of discussion went into it so I want to thank everybody for their efforts in putting this budget together. I'm encouraged by it. I like that it has plans for the future. We are looking beyond just the 2021-22 budget and I think this gives us an opportunity to put ourselves in a very good place for a number of years to come."
The local tax levy will be $14,641,567 -- the same it has been since 2016-17. The budget still includes the use of $2 million from the district's fund balance and $775,000 from district reserve funds. State aid from the first iteration of the budget has increased form $63,932,908 to $70,104,178. The capital budget decreases $119,803 due to a decrease in debt service and shift of security officers from the program budget to the capital budget. The district's administrative budget is decreasing by $204,444 despite adding two new administrative positions, with the new spending offset by the retirement of the district's chief operating officer and a decrease in BOCES capital expenses.
"Usually the budget process is very painful and stressful," Leathers said. "I don't think as a committee we felt that way this year. We had a really good discussion and Brittnay (Spry) was always there with a smile answering the millions of questions I would pepper her with. I think the whole process felt much cleaner to me."
A public hearing on the budget will be held May 11 at 6 p.m. in the Persell Middle School auditorium. The school budget and capital improvement project vote as well as school board elections will be held from noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 18, at Lincoln Elementary School and Jefferson and Washington Middle schools.