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CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. The Croton-Harmon Board of Education presented Budget Saturday, this weekend, an in-depth look at a budget that will likely see little to no change before the May 15 popular vote. Budget Saturday is a budget workshop unique to Croton, which uses a Saturday morning to parse out nearly every detail of the budget over four hours.
Budgeting is a year round discussion for us, said Karen Zevin, school board president. For legal reasons, the final budget presented for vote must be completed by April 11.
One full-time second grade teacher, one full-time fourth grade teacher and numerous small cuts were made to reach the $800,000 in savings the district has to find to come under the .71 percent tax levy cap. The complex formula that determines each schools individual tax levy cap put Crotons well under 2 percent.
Not only was the year-to-year dollar amount of the budget decreased by over $430,000, but because of lost revenue and a declining tax base the tax levy will still increase by .71 percent. Tax levies are indirectly tied to tax rates, so tax levies cannot be directly equated with a tax rate increase.
Areas that took significant hits include the English as a Second Language budget at Croton-Harmon High School, which decreased by nearly two-thirds to $76,645. The Learning Center at the high school was almost entirely cut from $112,004 to $400, to name a few.
Arts and music education remained intact, both growing by under 4 percent. District officials initially presented cutting half a music teacher to the community during Croton's World Cafe, but there was a large community pushback against the idea.
A letter from Superintendent Edward Fuhrman said areas for potential cuts are limited, and in fact directly impact services to children.
The politically active board noted not only the difficulties of budgeting under what they carefully call the tax levy cap, but Zevin said, Were really worried about the state of education in New York. Clearly, the governor is in control of whats going on out there.
Zevin added that the board believed that the tax levy cap and new state standards are trying to force school districts to consolidate, stifling creativity and encouraging teaching to the test.
District officials warn that the district will likely face the same budgeting problems next year. All of the documents presented at the meeting will be available at the district's website.
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