Eldred budget presented; Stays below the property tax cap

Posted 8/21/12

ELDRED, NY — The proposed budget for the next school year was presented at a meeting of the board of the Eldred Central School District on May 7. The increase in the budget amounts to a hike of …

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Eldred budget presented; Stays below the property tax cap

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ELDRED, NY — The proposed budget for the next school year was presented at a meeting of the board of the Eldred Central School District on May 7. The increase in the budget amounts to a hike of .81%, with an increase in the tax levy of 2.88%. Because some expenses are exempt from the tax, this increase remains inside of the 2% property tax cap mandated by Albany.

The treasurer of the district, Ruth Luis, said there will be no cuts to programs and no cuts to personnel. Residents of the school district will have a chance to vote on the budget, and on the single race for a seat on the board on May 19, at the junior and senior high school in Eldred.

There was a moment of tension as Gene Rider, a resident, wanted to know the average cost of education for a student in the school district.

Luis said that it’s difficult to pin down an average cost per student, because some students, such as those enrolled in BOCES programs, cost a lot more than other students.

Rider was not satisfied, and said those figures are available. He said, for instance, in Utah, the average cost to educate a student is $6,500 per year.

Interim business administrator Larry Lawrence said, “I can’t speak to Utah or any of those other states, because New York State, we know, is the most expensive state in which to educate children in the United States….”

After looking through some papers, junior/senior high school principal Scott Krebs interjected, “I believe it’s $26,500, and we’re the second- or third-lowest in the county.” (There are eight districts in the county.)

Rider said that in terms of quality of education, the state ranks Eldred school district as 396 out of nearly 700 school districts. He said, “so we’re in the lower third, and we’re paying over $26,000 per student.”

Lawrence said, “One wonders why that would be. One wonders what other states have regarding requirements that are funded by the taxpayers but required by the state.”

Rider said one difference he noted was that New York students spend fewer hours in school.

Lawrence said state law requires that the district negotiate with teachers over such things as the length of school days, but he added that no one is happy with being in the lower third.

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