The $58,544,000 budget was presented at the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday. That meeting can be viewed here. The budget presentation begins at 20:40. The following charts, showing the breakdown of revenue and expenses, were part of the presentation made on Tuesday. (Click on the images to enlarge.)
When someone questioned the reduction in Instruction on the Expenses chart, despite an almost $3 million increase in the budget, it was explained they were discontinuing "underutilized services" and not replacing some salaried positions made vacant "due to retirement."
After the presentation, someone on the board commented, "This rate of growth is not sustainable." Another board member defended the budget, asserting that they "haven't gone all the way to the tax cap" in prior years and calling on folks "to not be naysayers."
The "Public Forum" portion of the meeting yielded some interesting moments. After saying Policy 1230--the policy regarding public participation at board meetings--reminded him of "a Saddam Hussein comment before one of his legislative sessions," Peter Meyer told the board that the recent audit should be proof of the board's incapacity to present any budget to the voters and recommended the board immediately order a forensic audit to "plug the many holes" revealed by the audit. He also recommended that any vote to extend any contracts be postponed until new board members are elected and sworn in.
Another moment of interest, which is more of a footnote, was a comment made by Wayne Kinney, the president of the Hudson Teachers Association. He expressed concern about PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) and asked the board how PILOTs were impacting the school budget. He went on to say that the school had nothing to do with granting PILOTs. That wasn't always the case. Up until 2021, the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA), the body that makes decisions about PILOTs in the City of Hudson, had seat designated for someone from HCSD. The school district never sent anyone to represent it on the IDA, so in 2021, the seventh seat on the IDA was redesignated for a community representative. That seat is currently held by Charles Millar.
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Update: Today's special meeting of the Board of Education took all of four minutes. Only four members of the board were present: Mark DePace, Amanda Grubler, Matthew Mackerer, and Willette Jones. (Those absent were Kjirsten Gustavson, Calvin Lewis, and Lakia Walker.) There was no public comment, and there was no board discussion. The statement was made that nothing had changed in the final numbers.
Five million dollars is a lot of money to be spending on debt service. Could someone say how much debt the HCSD is carrying and how it was acquired?
ReplyDeleteYes....and how it was acquired is as concerning as the amount of debt.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the answer, but I expect capital projects may account for the debt. As Ken Sheffer pointed out, the proposed $8.35 million capital project now being proposed, for improvements to existing buildings, will involve issuing bonds, which must be paid off. In 2016, there was a $20 million capital project to build the addition to Montgomery C. Smith and the "sports complex" at the high school. In 2019, the historic playing field behind Montgomery C. Smith was refurbished because students and their parents didn't like having baseball and softball games at the new "sports complex." It's possible the bonds issued for the construction of the junior high school building and improvements to the senior high school building, done around 2008, may still be part of the debt. As I said, I don't know the answer, but these capital projects seem likely sources of at least part of the debt.
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