SHERBURNE – The Sherburne-Earlville school board adopted a tentative 2011-2012 budget Monday that calls for an average tax levy increase of 1.9 percent.
The proposed spending plan, estimated at $29.5 million, would be an increase of 1.66 percent over the present school year’s. The budget calls for the elimination of 13 jobs, including one administrator, and gives no raises to the superintendent and assistant superintendent. Only one teacher is retiring.
“It’s never easy when you have to reduce positions,” said S-E Board of Education President Doug Shattuck. “But like us, every school district in the state is experiencing budgets they can’t afford and student populations going down. Those are the two reasons needed to cut staff,” he said.
To help keep the levy increase under 2 percent, the board agreed to expend $1 million from set-aside reserves.
Only two residents in the district questioned the budget Monday, something Shattuck said he was “surprised” about. With today’s current economic constraints, and people losing their jobs, the board president said he could “almost name” the district taxpayers who attend budget meetings every year.
“I don’t see the public outcry. In a district the size of Sherburne-Earlville’s, I’m surprised that we don’t see a greater number of citizens show up with questions and concerns.”
One of the residents attending asked the board to contact the labor union that represents teachers and try to renegotiate, if not freeze, teacher salaries. Shattuck said the board attempted to do so in January, but union representatives refused to consider the concessions.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget plan would cut $1.6 million in state aid to S-E schools. Chenango County’s eight school districts, in total, stood to lose nearly $7.3 million.
