After the vote, Eldred superintendent shares vision

SUSAN WADE
Posted 7/3/18

ELDRED, NY — Hours before the special board meeting in which Dr. John Morgano rescinded his resignation and was reinstated as Superintendent, he shared some thoughts regarding the future of the …

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After the vote, Eldred superintendent shares vision

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ELDRED, NY — Hours before the special board meeting in which Dr. John Morgano rescinded his resignation and was reinstated as Superintendent, he shared some thoughts regarding the future of the Eldred Central School District.

Morgano spoke throughout the almost two-hour conversation in his characteristic low-key manner, while expressing much optimism for the future of the district and for what it can become.

Financial picture

Regarding the district’s financial situation, he reiterated a message he has mentioned frequently, that the district’s fund balance must be grown from the “zero” it is currently to 4% of operating expenses, to be considered healthy. Morgano inherited a financial mess, learning a few months into his tenure in the district that, financially speaking, Eldred is one of the two worst districts in the state.

He said the fund balance will be restored to health within four years. The 2018-19 budget reflects cuts in positions and programs that will have cumulative and ongoing financial benefits. The district was staffed for a student enrollment of over 700, and is now in line with the current enrollment of approximately 550 students. “The hardest choices have been made already.”

Morgano and treasurer Caleb Russell are looking at everything, asking whether there is a less expensive way to still get a quality product. This runs the gamut from increased bus-route efficiency to scheduling of high school classes. “Some elective classes had been operating with three or four students, which is a luxury the district cannot afford,” said Morgano. “It takes eight to 10 students at a minimum.” At the elementary level, there are too many students to combine classes, although the current Kindergarten enrollment is sufficient for one class.

Morgano repeated a statement he has made frequently: “You can’t spend what you don’t have.” He and Russell also said that a tax increase above the state-mandated tax cap is pretty much inevitable, and would probably be sought in the 2019-20 fiscal year, after which the hope was that taxes would increase commensurately with inflation.

The budget process incorporates best conservative guesses in most areas, including health-care increases and enrollment in vocational and special education classes. For the latter, funds not used to serve the district’s students are refunded by BOCES, but one objective is not to be caught short at the end of a fiscal year and owe more for services than had been allowed for in the budget. Any budgeted amount not consumed is funneled into growing the fund balance. In fact, it is the only means available to increase the fund balance, because a direct increase to the fund balance cannot be budgeted for. It’s not the way to run a business, but it’s the way you have to run a school district. 

One change going forward is that the number of students who want to enroll in vocational education classes will not be capped, as had been the case previously. The objective is to produce students who will have or will acquire the skills to be employed and self supporting, including being able to pay taxes. Morgano indicated that if a student can be trained as an electrician or a plumber, he may stay in the area and contribute to the area’s economic growth.

Asked about the continuation of the football program, Morgano said that he directed the athletic director, J.J. Gass, to identify $20,000 in cuts that were incorporated into the 2018-19 budget. Gass retained football, stating that to cut the program would impact a significant number of students, more than 30, and was able to make the cuts by shortening schedules and eliminating some away games in other sports. Morgano said that if the budget had been defeated, football would have been cut. For this fall, it stays.

Currently, a 1% increase in taxes translates into roughly $100,000 of revenue. Given the tax cap, Morgano and Russell were asked whether the $500,000 of increases in salaries and benefits budgeted this year is sustainable. Russell responded that it is not. Morgano said that he has a good working relationship with the faculty association, which has offered to have a discussion with the superintendent and school board to review expenses. Stating again that expenses need to decrease, Morgano commented that 100% medical coverage in retirement is nice but probably not sustainable. But this benefit cannot be changed for those currently receiving it. He added that administrators’ contracts currently include 50% reimbursement of medical costs upon retirement.

Board president Carol Bliefernich did not respond to a request to participate in this interview. Faculty association president Bonnie Padua was asked about a statement read at a March 22 board meeting in which the faculty association indicated that it had voted on a proposal to save about $250,000 in costs by paying more into health insurance, delaying raises and promoting a retirement incentive that was rejected by the board, and that the association had prepared a list of cost savings cuts to help balance the district budget. Padua responded in an email that the faculty association “does not bargain in public, so we have no statement for you or your paper at this time. If the district and the association reach an agreement on a successor contract in the future we will address that fact at that time.”

The Vote

Although voter turnout for the recent vote was significant, it was not at the highest levels. Those occurred in the mid 2000s, when budgets were defeated two years in a row. The highest turnout caused the defeat of the 2004-05 budget and the second highest turnout ultimately passed the 2005-06 budget on a second vote.

Asked about why the voting machine used in June was from Orange County, Morgano said that the Sullivan County Board of Elections did not make their machines available to the district, stating that they were needed for the primary that occurred a week following the school vote. Because a few district students reside in Orange County, Morgano reached out to the Orange County Board of Elections for help, and said they couldn’t have been more cooperative, despite the fact that they also had to prepare for the primary vote.

At one of the special board meetings convened after the cancelled May vote, both the district’s attorney and one from the New York State School Board Association stated that the ballot could not be changed. However, the Orange County Board of Elections disagreed with that statement, and as a result, the ballot did not contain the name of a board candidate who had withdrawn prior to the May election.

Academic future

Morgano did not respond directly to the question regarding the level of enrollment at which the school district would be unsustainable, but he did say that closing the elementary school, as some have advocated, would not result in as significant a savings as might be thought. He said, though, that he doesn’t anticipate enrollment decreasing to such a level on his watch.

In fact, his goal is to improve academic outcomes to make the district a place where people want to locate to educate their children. He is recommending that specific goals for each classroom be created with report-outs of the results made to the school board on a regular basis. He has distributed a template to begin the data collection that will lead to the establishment of these specific goals, and said that the task has been embraced by the faculty. He said that when he came, he asked about such goals, only to learn that no standards had been established. Morgano said simply that without goals, there is no direction. The board will get involved in establishing these goals, and he is “not settling for average.”

Morgano reiterated several times that Eldred has a quality faculty and teaching staff and that all of the employees are dedicated to the success of the district and its students. That said, he commented, “There is no reason why we’re not doing much better.”

Eldred was a healthy, thriving district, the one to send your kids to back in the late seventies, according to Morgano. When asked what happened in the intervening years, he said that it doesn’t take long for decline to occur once you’ve taken your eye off the ball. “We’re going to be the envy of the county before we’re done” promised the man at the helm.

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