PEEKSKILL, N.Y. The Peekskill City School District announced Tuesday it must make up a $2.8 million deficit in order to have a budget for the 2012-13 school year.
"We're going to be short in revenue $2.8 million of our expenditures so we're planning for a deficit for the year of $2.8 million," said Assistant Superintendent for Business and Administrative Services Greg Sullivan to board members at Tuesday's special budget meeting.
The state budget recently adopted in Albany gave the Peekskill schools $29.5 million in aid $149,000 more than what Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget would have given the district.
The district is predicting a $74.38 million budget for the 2012-13 school year and while district tax revenue rose 2.5 percent to $1.8 million, the district's expenditures rose by 3.3 percent to $2.37 million.
In previous years, any surplus the district had would go into its fund balance, but this year Peekskill schools must use the fund balance to break even.
"That deficit, the $2.8 million, that will eat into the fund balance," Sullivan said.
The district's fund balance is expected to drop from the current $12.6 million to $9.9 million as funds will be used to close the gap.
Several items havent yet been included in next year's budget numbers, including several planned cuts, savings from new busing contracts and union concessions, according to Peekskill Superintendent James Willis.
"We haven't asked the unions for any concessions yet and we're just starting negotiations with them and hopefully union concessions will lead to more savings," Willis said.
Willis said he has agreed to a salary freeze for next year as part of the cost cutting efforts.
The board will discuss the budget further at its regular work session meeting on April 10 at 7 p.m.
In other news, the school board budget vote and trustee election will be held on May 15. There are two positions on the board up for election: Trustee Marcella Bobe's will be seeking reelection to her seat and another seat is being vacated. Those wishing to run for the board need to compile a list of 100 signatures from city residents by April 25. Applications are available at the district office.
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