Original Budget Proposal Reductions

After prioritizing, exploring and ultimately making $219,000 in reductions, school officials arrived at a plan they believe balances the educational needs of students and is fiscally responsible to the community.

“There’s no doubt that a lot of time and thought has been put into the proposed budget,” said Board of Education President Raymond W. Hawes. “These were not easy decisions.”

“No one wants to make cuts, but at the same time, we could not ask the community to accept a 7 percent tax rate increase to maintain our current level of programming,” said Superintendent Christine Crowley.

New Visions
Historically, Duanesburg has sent approximately 33 students to BOCES Career & Technical School and New Visions programs. That number rose to 48 students in 2007-08—increasing tuition and transportation costs by more than $168,000.

“This year, nearly 58 students indicated interest in BOCES programs for the 2008-09 school year, which would increase costs $250,000 above our previous levels,” said Crowley. “Given our state aid revenue projections and transportation costs, we simply cannot afford to send this many students to out-of-district programs.”

In an effort to address the rising number of students pursuing study outside of their home school district, Duanesburg is committed to stepping up its course offerings by providing hands-on learning and career-focused courses for the 21st
century.

“We need to respond to this,” said Crowley. “The more students who pursue educational offerings outside of our district, the larger the financial commitment. This becomes disadvantageous to students on-campus, who may be left with the bare minimum if we allow this trend to continue at such a high rate.”
Administrators, along with faculty and staff, are currently developing career-focused courses to offer students next school year in the fields of journalism, law and health.

“I have great confidence in our faculty,” said Crowley. “That is why we believe we can create an in-house program that is comparable in quality to BOCES, but may look differently here in Duanesburg.”

Transportation
While transportation costs are rising throughout the country, Duanesburg estimates savings of about $29,000 in bus driver salaries, alone, next year. These savings come from a reduction in bus routes due to the elimination of mid-day bus runs for half-day kindergarten, less travel to out-of-district sites for BOCES programs and the discontinuation of one late bus run.

Teacher aides
To further reduce spending, the district has proposed eliminating four full-time and three part-time teacher aide positions, which will create a net savings of $80,000. Currently, teacher aides are assigned to grade level teachers not associated with special education. They are not certified to teach classes. Their responsibilities are limited to non-instructional duties under direct supervision of the classroom teacher.
 

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