No Mandarin at the Middle School and School Budget Under Tax Cap

The Scarsdale Board of Education is holding frequent sessions to review the budget for 2016-17 and making key decisions for the coming year. After months of discussion, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Lynne Shain announced that there's not sufficient interest in Mandarin at the Scarsdale Middle School to warrant its addition to the foreign language program for next year's sixth graders. The district previously said that if 48 sixth graders signed up for Mandarin for the 2016-17 school year they would make the necessary faculty and scheduling changes to include it in the middle school curriculum. The administration sent out registration forms to the parents of all rising fifth graders offering a choice of Spanish, French and Mandarin. They sent out an email explaining the procedure, e-mailed registration forms to parents and even made phone calls to families who had not responded.

Only 42 students signed up which was insufficient to hire the Mandarin teacher at the middle school, at an estimated cost of $330,000 over three years.

Even after the decision was announced, residents got up to ask the Board to reconsider. Closing discussion of the subject after months of deliberation, Board President Lee Maude thanked everyone involved and said, "It's been quite a road!"

In other news, the district anticipates a very minimal rise in the school budget for 2016-17. As of the February 29 meeting, Stuart Mattey projects next year's school budget will be $150,117,000, which is a 1.4% budget to budget increase and only a .63% increase in the tax levy. Since the state mandated tax cap is .75%, the increase is below the cap and the budget will require only a 50% approval to pass.

Several factors contributed to a $3.1 million surplus this year that will ease pressure on next year's budget.

• The warm winter and the phase-in of LED lights, has yielded a savings of $500,000 on utility costs.
• The self-funded health insurance plan for the district is $1 million under their budget.
• There is $700,000 in savings in Special Education costs due to fluctuations in enrollment
• There is a $590,000 savings in the district's NYS pension contribution.

After approval by the state, the district is again permitted to maintain their own reserve for their self-insured health plan and $3,750,000 has been placed in that reserve fund. Due to the tax revaluation, there are many tax certiorari cases before the court, leaving the district uncertain about how much they may need to return to taxpayers. This year, the tax certiorari reserve is $5,101,409. The unassigned fund balance, another closely watched number if $5,653,980. By law this figure cannot be more than 4% of the budget, and $5.6 million represents 3.77%. The projected overall fund balance as of June 2016 is $19.3 million. Mattey pointed out that Scarsdale ranked 581 out of 672 schools for the lowest percentage of total fund balance in 2015.

The $150 million budget includes funding for staff and benefits, facilities, instruction, special education, technology, athletics, transportation and more. Here are a few of the items of interest in the budget:

Though the school is spending $1 million on plant improvements, the rule of thumb is that a district should spend 2% of the total budget on maintenance and improvement of the physical plant, which would be $3,000,000. However the district did pass an $18.1 million bond in December 2014 and these funds will be used for district wide renovations and improvements.

Here are a few items from the plant improvement and maintenance budget:

• Refurbishment of the gym floor at SHS
• New bleachers in the gym at Scarsdale Middle School
• Playground inspections and repairs district –wide
• Purchase of a "Rocket," an on-site composting machine which will be placed at the middle school.
• $224,500 for principal-directed projects at the schools which will be done at the discretion of each principal.

The district is proposing to fund $1.5 million in capital projects budget including a fire alarm update at Edgewood School, music room renovations at the middle school and updates at the bus compound.

In terms of staffing, Lynne Shain announced the following changes:

• 1 full time position will be added to support assessments and testing coordination
• 2 elementary school teachers will be hired to support fluctuations in enrollment.
• 1 physical education will be added at the high school
• 1 pre-engineering STEAM teacher will be added at the high school. The new teacher will offer design and engineering courses that are already in the 2016-17 catalogue of course offerings for SHS. The description says, "The course sequence will provide students with hands-on learning experiences through open-ended projects in which they will design, prototype, and test solutions to authentic, human-centered problems. Course projects will gradually increase in scale and complexity as students develop their knowledge and skills. The two introductory courses, Introduction to Design and Fabrication and Introduction to Engineering are prerequisites for participation in a yearlong course in design and entrepreneurship."

The athletics budget will go up 8% to allow for more programs, coaching and conditioning for district students. More students are participating in track and field, a JV hockey team has been added as well as offerings in strength and conditioning. The budget also includes funds for the reconditioning of athletic equipment, travel, supplies and uniforms.

The proposed Special Education budget for 2016-17 is actually $300,000 lower than the budget for 2015-16 due to the number of students who require services. This budget also includes a new program for students with emotional disabilities at Scarsdale High School. Eric Rauschenberg said that there are many fluctuations in enrollment; for instance last year only four students with special needs signed up for kindergarten but this year the district expects 16 or 17 students.

The technology budget includes the expansion of the Chrome Book program to third grade. All third graders will have their own Chrome Book beginning in September. It also include many technology upgrades, new servers, high density wiring in common spaces, expanded access and replacement smart boards. The technology budget is 2% of the total budget.

In other news, Board President Lee Maude announced that the Board had an informal discussion about their meeting calendar for next year and it is likely that they will eliminate the morning meetings they held this year.

The board is expected to adopt the final budget on April 18 with the district wide budget vote on May 17th. The board will meet again on Wednesday morning March 2 at 8:30 am at Scarsdale High School. You can watch the meetings in their entirety here.