PEEKSKILL, N.Y. The Peekskill City School District Board of Education voted Tuesday to approve the tentative Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES administrative budget for the 2012-13 school year.
The $8.4 million budget was presented to the board by John McCarthy, assistant superintendent of BOCES, and Todd Currie, director of business affairs, after a presentation by BOCES students about some of the programs available.
The Peekskill City School District purchased $4.4 million in services for 76 students through Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES in the last year. Of that, the majority, $2.9 million, went towards special education services. Peekskill also purchased $3.2 million in services from other BOCES centers, mostly from Southern Westchester.
The BOCES center generated $778,953 in revenue last year for its services, Currie said, which was returned to partnering districts since BOCES is not allowed to maintain a fund balance. Peekskill schools received a refund of $37,080.
Administration costs make up 16 percent of the $53.6 million total proposed 2012-13 BOCES budget, but much of that goes towards retirement costs, McCarthy said.
"If you look at our administrative budget overall, 35 percent of that is the administrative portion and the other 65 percent goes towards retiree health insurance," McCarthy said.
The proposed 2012-13 administrative budget is an increase of 0.22 percent and would be -1.5 percent if retirement insurance costs are removed from the equation, according to Currie.
Peekskill school board Trustee Doug Glickert thanked the BOCES administrators for their spending plan, which he said he considers to be responsible.
"We appreciate the efforts you have made to keep the budgets at a reasonable level," Glickert said.
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