The Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education approved its 2019-20 school budget totalling $90,682,678. From left is Lisa Almasi, chief operating officer, and Bret Apthorpe, JPS superintendent, presenting the school budget to board members. P-J photo by Jordan W. Patterson

A $90.7 million 2019-20 school budget was approved by the Jamestown Public Schools Board that maintains a flat tax levy that Superintendent Bret Apthorpe described as “a community budget.” With it, three district initiatives important to Jamestown students and Apthorpe were included that will “change the paradigm.”

The $90,682,678 proposed school budget for the 2019-20 school year is a $4,453,976 increase from the 2018-19 enacted school budget of $86,228,702.

The tax levy remains at $14,641,567, as it has since the 2016-17 school year. The current tax levy was also the district’s tax levy from the 2010-11 school year until the 2014-15 school year.

The district is set to receive $50,787,782 for the 2019-20 school year, up $1,697,262 from the $49,090,520 of foundation aid received in the 2018-19 school year.

Apthorpe and Lisa Almasi, chief operating officer, presented the budget to the board during Tuesday’s meeting.

Despite a district-estimated shortfall of $6.4 million foundation aid formula from the state, there were no layoffs and district goals will still be met.

The district’s initiatives include aligning curriculum with the needs of the local labor market and colleges, creating the Success Academy in the former Rogers Elementary School building and implementing an elementary summer reading program estimated to impact more than 400 students.

Those initiatives have also created many community partnerships throughout the area, leaving Apthorpe referring to the budget as a community budget numerous times.

Apthorpe said the district goals are not just “sexy initiatives,” but will in fact create “significant systemic changes” in Jamestown. The superintendent believes the initiatives will allow Jamestown to become high-performing despite being a high-poverty school district.

The Success Academy and the summer literacy program will both partner with local organizations to improve student achievement. Also, the alignment of curriculum to local needs looks to benefit local employers in the long run.

With regards to the foundation aid shortfall, Apthorpe has maintained that the district’s consistent underfunding by that state based on a fair-funding formula that was abandoned a decade ago. Jamestown has been in a highly-publicized legal battle with the state regarding the very issue.

The lawsuit, Maisto et al v. State or the Small Cities case as it’s commonly referred to, charges the state with not following its own formula created after the Campaign for Fiscal Equity won a landmark case in 2003. Subsequently, the adjusted foundation aid formula was used for one school year in 2009-10 before it was frozen after the 2008 recession.

The budget also includes a capital outlay project that is worth $100,000 but is state aided at 98 percent. The project do not need to be approved by district voters. The current proposed project will look to create a secure entrance at Fletcher Elementary School.

In other news, Apthorpe informed the board he would not be giving authorization to convicted sex offenders to visit school property if they intended to vote on the upcoming school budget on May 21. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order 181 permits convicted sex offenders the right to vote, but if voting on school grounds they need written authorization from the superintendent, according to statutory law.

“On the school budget vote, there are three schools where polling will be taking place,” Apthorpe told the board. “We will be giving the names and photos of all sex offenders living in the city of Jamestown to our school resource officers and red shirts who will be providing security at the polling sites. If any such offender shows up they will be escorted off the property.”