School District Kicks Off Budget Workshops

For the next five weeks the Three Village Central School District Board of Education will meet once per week, starting Tuesday night, as the district starts to hammer out the specifics of the 2012-13 school budget.

Each meeting will begin at 8 p.m. at the North Country Administration Center and is open to the public: March 6, March 13, March 20, March 27, and April 17. Three of those meetings are considered regular board meetings, during which the budget will be a component, and two are special budget meetings.

It won't be easy but "we're already way ahead of where we normally are at this point since we ," assistant superintendent Jeff Carlson said in an interview Monday.

Easing the process along slightly: at least 10 senior faculty members have announced their intent to retire at the end of the school year, which benefits the district in that each retirement saves nearly two positions for newer teachers with lower salaries. And updated estimates governing the district's responsibility to contribute to the teachers' retirement fund yielded lower numbers than previously thought.

In a Jan. 24 presentation to the Board of Education, Carlson outlined examples of the savings that potential cuts could yield: reductions of $300,000 in vocational education for juniors, $130,000 in athletics, $25,000 from co-curricular activities, and more. Dozens of teachers could lose their jobs, and full-day kindergarten and nine-period days at the secondary level would be in jeopardy.

"Everything is up for reduction until the board says it isn't," Carlson said, "and then even still, the budget has to pass."

Carlson reflected on the way the budget process has evolved over the years.

"In these meetings, 10 or 12 years ago, we'd be talking about new programs that we'd be adding," he said. "Now we're talking about how we're going to cut spending."

Editor's Note: As per a decision made on March 6, the Board of Education meeting originally set for April 4 has been rescheduled to April 17. This article has been corrected to reflect that change.