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PV School District Lowers Proposed Tax Rate Increase
Putnam Valley Sees 1%, Cortlandt 1.13% and Carmel 3.62 % increases
by Margaret Sternberg
At the April 19, 2007 meeting of the Putnam Valley Board of Education, Superintendent Gary Tutty announced that the proposed 2007/08 school budget would rise by $100,000 to $40,945,232, yet taxpayers would be paying less of a school tax increase than when the budget was lower. The new budget-to-budget increase is 5.33 percent.
Due to increases in revenue, with State Aid coming in $270,204 higher than projected and higher returns on investments, the projected school tax rate increase for Putnam Valley decreases from 2.03 to 1.0 percent. For Cortlandt the rate decreases from 2.17 to 1.13 percent, and for Carmel the rate decreases from 4.69 to 3.62 percent.
The Putnam Valley school tax increase, Tutty said, ranks as one of the lowest in the state in the last two years.
Tutty also discussed the ramifications of a contingency budget, which would be imposed if a proposed budget is defeated twice and would require that an additional $660,000 in cuts be made from the currently proposed budget. The budget would require cuts in the athletic program, non-mandated classroom aides, the loss of an elementary school teacher and in high school electives. Other cuts affecting the district also might include no summer help, no work on the "5- year plan" projects and a related reduction in the appropriated fund balance.
Under a contingency budget no outside use of the school's facilities would be permitted and there would be more limited use of the facilities by the school.
Tutty explained that the extra $100,000 had been put back into the budget for two related reasons. He expressed concern that, without the additional monies, there would be no latitude within which Interim High School Principal Richard Herlihy, as well as the other two principals, could adjust to staffing and other changes that might arise next year. Tutty also noted the enrollment of an additional 60 students in High School Science, which has resulted in a need for additional staff as well as staffing restructuring.
Explaining what some of the money would be used for, Herlihy said that most of the extra enrollments had been for Earth Science, and he suggested an additional part-time science teacher to teach two extra classes in Biology, in the belief that "students would benefit by integrating more Earth Science into the program." Herlihy explained that the number of enrollments for Earth Science had risen from about 20 last year to 75 this year to more than 120 next year, necessitating an increase from three to five sections of Earth Science.
Other reconfigurations of staffing included the restructuring of High School Technology and Physical Education. Through the restructuring, the district will save .4 in teaching costs.
In other business, nearly an hour of "video vignettes" from the Elementary, Middle and High Schools were presented as an illustration of "student-centered, multi-disciplinary teaching."
The clips illustrated the incorporation of several content areas into a particular course of instruction, with "connections for and with children by the teachers" and a curriculum that is "student- versus teacher-oriented."
Third grade teacher Barbara Parmly discussed the District's Professional Development Plan, which is the outgrowth of group discussions on goals for the district. The goals are based on student needs as based upon the Data Warehousing data analysis, and an analysis of teacher needs based on surveys and questionnaires.
Three goals have been developed for the staff: increased student achievement through the improvement of literacy and study skills in grades K-12; to continue to build ongoing communication in the K-12 grades and the fostering of communication among the elementary, middle and high schools, and to use data analysis and technology to improve instruction. The Board later approved the District's Professional Development Plan, which involves the implementation of the goals.
The Board, among a number of housekeeping-type resolutions, also approved the Memorandum of Agreement between the Civil Service Employees Union and the District.
There are two Board seats open this year, that of Mary Maus and Frank Reale. Both are running unopposed this year. The next meeting of the Putnam Valley Board of Education will be Thursday, May 3, at 7pm.
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