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Putnam Valley School District's Preliminary 2007-8 Budget Proposed to Rise 5.46 Percent to $40,995,232
Richard Herlihy appointed Interim High School Principal
by Margaret Sternberg
At its March 1, 2007 meeting, the Putnam Valley Board of Education proposed a preliminary 2007-8 budget that rises 5.46 percent from the 2006-7 budget.
The initial proposal puts the 2007-8 budget at $40,995,232. Of the $2,123,302 increase, nearly 50 percent or $1,061,383 is in mandatory salary increases and almost 37 percent or $780,724 is attributed to contract-mandated employee benefits.
A contingency budget would require approximately $699,000 in budget cuts from the proposed 2007-8 budget. Those cuts, Superintendent Gary Tutty said, would be made "across the board."
During the greater portion of the meeting, which consisted of various presentations, the principals of the Elementary and Middle Schools gave overviews of their budget proposals. The proposals were similar in that neither reflected any major changes nor additional staff for the coming school year.
The elementary school is projecting an additional 19 students, which is reflected in an increase in the kindergarten and second grade class sizes from 20 to 21 students and in fourth grade from 22 to 23 students. All programs in the school remain unchanged.
In the middle school, all programs remain intact and the only request made during the meeting was that the staff continues to receive training in Technology in order to enhance students' learning.
Middle School Principal Ed Hallisey noted that fifth grade class size is projected to decrease from 26 to 22 next year, while the sixth grade is expected to increase from 25 to 26. Grade 7 classes are expected to go from a range of 21 to 29 per class to 22 to 30 per class, and Grade 8 class size will remain stable at between 18 to 29 students per class.
The high school presentation also reflected a stable budget with no major changes or requests for staff; however, Acting Principal Sam Oliverio noted that although demographics have stabilized, the current Grade 10 is unusually large at 181 students. He said that once the current tenth graders graduate in 2009, the high school population should remain steady at about 600 students for the following five to eight years.
Among the highlights of the high school program, Oliverio stressed the effectiveness of the Twilight Program and urged its continuation, a request echoed by several others especially when it was noted that eight students will graduate through the program this year who might otherwise not have done so.
Jim Stowell, head of the Special Education and Student Services Department, made no changes or additional requests for his area saying, "We are able to meet all student needs with current levels of staffing." Stowell noted that since 2001, due to early intervention, the classification rates have been declining for school-age students in the District.
Superintendent Tutty gave the presentation of the Athletics Department, noting the importance of "sports" to the students as illustrated by student participation. The budget appeared to be all-inclusive, including salaries for the Director, clerical staff, coaches, an athletic trainer and others as well as equipment, supplies, BOCES officials and materials and supplies. Tutty noted that Athletic Director Pete Kuczma will have to be replaced because of state restrictions imposed on schools regarding the re-hiring of school district retirees.
Director of Operations Nick Bellantoni showed no changes in requirements for his department, although he noted, with relief, that the numbers for fuel oil and for gasoline and diesel fuel for the current year appeared to be coming in within the amount budgeted.
In the area of Curriculum and Personnel there also appeared no special requests and areas such as providing for K-12 Coordinators, data warehousing, Tech- Paths and a consultant and the provision of additional ELA and Math consultants were expected to be defrayed by Title Grant allocations.
In the only other business of the meeting, the Board approved three "new business" resolutions, among which was the appointment of Richard Herlihy as Putnam Valley's Interim High School Principal effective March 5, 2007. Herlihy retired last year as Principal of the Lakeland High School.
The Board also approved the overnight Fourth Grade Trip to the Taconic Outdoor Education Center. The next meeting of the Putnam Valley Board of Education will be Thursday, March 15, at 7pm.
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