At last night's meeting of the Hudson City School District Board of Education, some alarming news was revealed. The budget for the 2026-2027 school year now being proposed is $61,449,000--5.1 percent more than the budget for the current school year ($58,544,000), which apparently translates into a 10 percent increase in the tax levy.
There was a time when the HCSD budget seemed to increase regularly by $1 million a year. Last year, the increase was $2.5 million. This year, the proposed increase is very close to $3 million.
Last night's school board meeting, as well as the presentation of the plans for the reconstruction of the tennis courts on Paddock Place, which took place at the February 24 meeting, inspired Ken Sheffer, alumnus and critic of HCSD, historian and champion of the Depression Era achievement that was the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Educational Center, and accomplished tennis player, to write this piece: "A 10% Tax Levy Increase and the Hudson Board of Education Can't Even Spell 'Tennis.'" It's long, and much of it has to do with the restoration of the tennis courts, which may or may not be of interest to all readers, although it should be of interest to anyone who cares about preserving Hudson history, but I encourage everyone to read it. It provides insight into the workings of the school district we pay dearly to support.
COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK
I think it’s finally time for the voters to vote no on the school budget. This is out of control. At this point it would be cheaper to pay tuition for each student to go to a private school with an Uber each way.
ReplyDeleteVote “no” all you want: it doesn’t matter. The SD has a contingent budget that will automatically be implemented if the public votes down the proposed budget. As we learned over a decade ago, in its infinite incompetence and cynicism, the BoE’s contingent budget is the same as the proposed budget. Tada! That gritty feeling you’re experiencing is the sand in the Vaseline.
DeleteIt’s past time for the City council to form an education committee, with community volunteers who know about educational best practices, who’ve actually educated children (Ken, Peter Meyer, Susan Troy, etc.), and use this group to focus the HCSD voters to finally all revolt and force change.
By the way, congrats on the boys’ basketball team’s championship season! Now teach those boys and girls to read you slack-ass school and teachers’ union wankers, and stop shitting on our children’s’ future.
Isn’t there a state mandated % cap that requires more voter consent to override? And of course they’ll do that thing where they hold extra curricular as their budget human shields to pull at heart strings while they protect their redundant corps of administrators. At some point something has got to give. We are near the highest dollar spent per pupil, in one of the highest states in the country. The district’s student enrollment keeps dropping as new parents and families avoid moving here if they can’t send their kids to private. And for all that, academic performance is in the bottom tenth percentile. Homeowners and renters can’t afford this. There will be nobody left in Hudson.
DeleteThanks John. Here's a neat footnote: We tested our School Life News program (we call it literacy in a box) in the 9th grade a couple years ago (BP, Before Pennyman) and two of the current basketball champs were part of the class! I'll try to find their writings!!! As to the contingent budget, yes, the system is rigged. This is why you can't trust the State to fix things (though maybe someone could light a fire under Didi to stop NYSED from tearing down all educational goalposts, and why, as you suggest, we have to work from the bottom (i.e. Hudson citizens) up. And thanks Carole and Ken. --p
DeleteMust have tennis. Two or three kids are on the team.
ReplyDelete1. If it was not clear in the story, they literally misspelled "tennis" more than a dozen times.
Delete2. There was a local kerfuffle on Facebook last week because Mayor Ferris did not attend the basketball playoffs, a moral sin against the Community™.
3. Funny: If Morris buckled as easily as Ferris, she would go on Facebook (not call Joe, not walk to his office) and simply ask the mayor on Zanotelli's FB community group to come forward and "share his perspective on why he hates basketball and the Bluehawks". And then tag the Youth Center employees, all 15?!
Of course the Mayor can't be everywhere. And Morris is mature. So this alternative history did not happen.
4. The real scandal is that the Mayor skipping the basketball game got more HCSD community members upset than the bottom quartile State academic results, the scandals regarding racial bullying, that time Kamal got fired / asked to resign from the after school program, and the revolving door of Subpar-intendents.
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It makes you wonder why HCHC have not moved laterally to HCSD politics and funding, it is a bigger pot of money with less oversight.
Or is this like 1880s Gangs of New York situation where they stay off of each other's turf?
Nothing will happen until residents withhold their taxes and put the payments in an escrow account. This has got to stop!
ReplyDeleteI would hate for this blog to come off as a one-sided echo chamber, so I felt compelled to add a different perspective about the HCSD to balance some of the negativity here. It’s easy to criticize the district from the outside, but I wonder how many people commenting actually spend much time inside of our schools?
ReplyDeleteSince my kid started at MC Smith, I’ve tried to show up whenever I can- volunteering, going to school events, and brainstorming new ideas to help enrich the students and community. What I see are teachers working incredibly hard for their students every day. The amount of patience, care, and energy they put into their work is honestly pretty amazing. It’s not an easy job anywhere- all teachers should get paid more than they do, and the people doing it in Hudson deserve a lot more credit than they get in this space!
And the kids themselves are great! Curious, funny, creative, and sweet- and some are facing serious life challenges, poverty, displacement, and instability. These kids deserve all the love and support from their community!
I also just want to add a little context. If you actually look at the numbers, Hudson’s spending per student is right around the middle compared with neighboring districts in Columbia County. At the same time, Hudson serves a larger share of students living in poverty or with special learning needs. Public schools take every child who walks through the door, including students whose needs private schools aren’t equipped or willing to serve. That means more counselors, more special education staff, and more support services.
Of course the district has a lot of room for improvement. But there are a lot of people inside those buildings doing thoughtful, difficult work every day, and so many wonderful kids coming through those doors! That part of the story deserves to be acknowledged too, and before you criticize, I would suggest you try showing up to school events or volunteering opportunities and try and make a connection with the districts teachers and students, because it just might melt a cold or jaded heart!
I think tennis courts are an important part of any community, up there with basketball courts and soccer fields. And parks and swimming holes. If you have them, maintain them if you can afford to. What might be worth mentioning related to the tennis courts and school is what is just outside the courts on the asphalt at the intersection: A stop line with no stop sign on Paddock Place. Yes, a few years ago, first DPW installed a stop sign and then the stop line appeared next to it (thanks to Vicky Daskaloudi). But months later, the stop sign, without explanation by anyone at City Hall before or after, was removed by DPW (thanks to a neighbor at the corner who works for the city), while the stop line has remained, as white as ever. Oh, the confusion and dysfunction, right there next to the school. Children really have it pretty rough these days. Any child (or parent) walking to MC past the courts wouldn't be wrong in thinking someone out there doesn't care if they make it home alive. A (at times) busy three way intersection with one stop sign and two stop lines where children walk to and from school. A city that apparently doesn't care about its children. You would be hard pressed to find something similar -- a stop line with no stop sign -- outside of Hudson, especially so close to a public school.
ReplyDeleteKen Sheffer here. I think Hannah is right and her attitudes is a part of the larger solution. And she is right that we cannot let our own pet grievances be our only way to measure the HCSD. BUT there are not enough Hannahs and there are not enough ANYBODYs who put in the time to help the kids. Who show pride in the campuses or who even dare to study the school budgets. You MUST read the budgets and attend BOE meetings. That is one piece of the puzzle. But Hannah is right to remind us about positivity. Every youngster we have met at the tennis courts has been FABULOUSLY happy. We even teach tennis to a few of the school teachers, who are also great people. And Hannah, the people who run the Gossips newspaper and those who contribute on a regular basis are great citizens. Just imagine if the school was producing great results on less money. There would be no such need for all this negativity. But enrollment is massively down, school bills are up and results are in receivership. As for the teachers, full credit. No problem here. I know the issues but I know nothing about how to deal with it. But all are givers from what I see. I just ask that you go sit through a Board of Education meeting, esp a Community Budget Workshop and then tell me how you feel. Hannah, you need to be cloned and someone needs to let Peter Meyer run the school district. There must be a way for Hannah to help us all meet in the middle here. She can start by offering us some advice after attending a full BOE meeting. I will go with you.
ReplyDeleteKen, glad to hear we are more or less on the same page! I know enrollment is down- and it's a problem. I think one of the problems is that many parents in the district with extra financial means, and more free time, send their kids to private schools- or pay private school money to send them to another district- without ever trying to put their energy into our public schools. They are, of course, free to do what aligns with their values, but there is so much bad PR surrounding the school, from many people who don't have relationship to it except for their tax bill- so I just felt compelled to express some positive words out there. I do my best to zoom in to BOE meetings- but challengingly they are right in the middle of dinner time/bed time, but I show up when I can.
DeleteAnd before anyone else threatens to "withhold their taxes" or vote no one the next budget vote- I just wanted to remind them of who this would negatively affect (students and teachers), and the fact that our per student spending is no higher than our neighboring districts, while Hudson deals with a larger share of students in need.
Dear Hannah -
DeleteThank you for commenting so thoughtfully.
On your previous comment and this one:
1. Thank you for emphasizing an important point, that most agree with; there are of course excellent teachers and hard-working students within the HCSD system, likely the vast majority.
2. Is Gossips a bubble of negativity or do the current commentariat simply hold Hudson to national standards?
re: HCSD
"When you're accustomed to special treatment, equality feels like oppression."
3. Like Friedman, and others who commented here, many of our editors have tried to mentor and hire local students, and we actively raise money for some of the non-corrupt local NGOs.
But we decided to re-double our efforts on Africans in Africa who have real need, work-hard, and champion a growth-mindset. They have to overcome Passport Discrimination, do not have HPD protecting their bodies and property, and unlike Hudson's youth, are not born on the 2nd and mostly 3rd base of freedom and opportunity.
4. Our point all along is simply that at HCSD
2 x 2 = 1, not 4, and certainly not more.
In other words, the organization, legal structure, and buildings absorbs more than it creates in value.
If you paid every parent $42k per year and said, educate your kid where and how you want. Most would take that deal, and the kids would do better.
It is therefore, in aggregate, a vicious cycle, not a virtuous cycle.
And HCSD is worsening Hudson's housing crises with high taxes.
If local commentators were honest, and their family did not benefit from HCSD pensions... they would label HCSD taxes as a driver of "displacement". Not Max the polite foreign billionaire form Germany in Greenport or the other couple of 100 or so new residents
re: "I just wanted to remind them of who this would negatively affect (students and teachers), and the fact that our per student spending is no higher than our neighboring districts,"
First - our per student cost WOULD NOW BE ($42k per student) objectively higher than all except perhaps Chatham (with its unique one time capital project and plummeting enrollment) and our academic results far lower than all other districts. We will write on this more on Common Sense to put this false meme to rest and show all the receipts. (Not your fault Hannah)
Second - all public schools have to take all local students, this is not unique to HCSD. It is true that HCSD has slightly more students with "disabilities" 19% vs. Taconic, New Lebanon and Germantown, at 13%, 12%, and 15% respectively.
The statewide average is around 17-18%.
But what does that even mean these days... remember that 40% of elite College students now claim some sort of "disability": https://tinyurl.com/385vayxk
For context, the US average is 15%, EU is 5%, and there is a body of literature that shows how in the US there are funding incentives (bounties) to distort these numbers. See footer.
Third - other areas in the County have near equal (or approximate, mid-40%) poverty rates (see Taconic, New Lebanon and Germantown) and they have far greater graduation rates and teacher retention.
[Catskill Elliot Matos, (i.e. not a voter or tax payer in Hudson) please screen grab this for your FB commentary feed to your HCHC bubble, and this time reference our Swiss and Australasian passports, not just our African ones. Thx]
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DeleteHannah - if you disagree with any of our arguments or data, we invite you or anyone else to write a Guest Op-Ed that we will publish unedited.
https://www.hudsoncommonsense.com/guest-op-eds
Continued...
If you take the ~$1m that City of Hudson spends on the "Youth Center", the $7m Kite's Nest development, the Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood spending on youth, the Spark of Hudson youth programming and UBI etc. all well intentioned, you could argue Hudson is unfairly well funded compared to other neighbors who have 40% plus poverty rates as well.
Is more funding making things worse?
$1 in every $5 of City of Hudson PROPERTY taxes goes to the Youth Center.
So Hudson residents triple pay for youth education: HCSD taxes + 15-20% of property tax + financially supporting all the NGOs doing what the first 2 payments failed to do.
And then some parents have a 4th payment (time or money) to pay to send their kids east, south, or abroad, or fight battles with HCSD to get their kids to a neighboring district.
And how do local graduates say "thanks" they threaten our lawmakers with physical violence, falsely call reason racism, and vandalize our property.
Fourth - have you ever considered that HCSD is harming the students and teachers? And that HCSD is stifling the growth of Hudson and the County?
Finally - in this greater context, when the only defense of HCSD's poor performance is that there are many "at risk" and below the "poverty rate" students... The HHA / Bliss developer is scheduled to 3x or 4x its current student load to HCSD, without matching school tax payments or property tax payments.
Is that moral to all those new youth residents, who need a functioning school?
Is it fair to the working parents in the 5th and 4th ward who pay $100k every decade in school taxes?
Hannah, are you in favor of the new HHA development and its impact on the "students and teachers"?
The "what about the kids, and what about the hardworking teachers" narrative is, we posit, unwise and harming the kids and the teachers.
- HCSD is doing more harm than good.
- HCSD is protected by the nation's worst labor unions, leaving residents coerced and without any options.
The upper-middle class kids will be shipped to Hawthorne or Westchester... while those born into different circumstances will not enjoy that privilege.
This is a moral scandal of double standards, lack of courage, and what Rob Henderson calls the "luxury beliefs of an educated elite (that) erode society".
https://www.robkhenderson.com/p/how-the-luxury-beliefs-of-an-educated
p.s. Ken - we agree that Peter and other national experts who live locally should lead a turnaround.
Hannah - see you at the Planning Board meeting re: Bliss?
References:
https://mhvcommunityprofiles.org/education/per-student-spending
"Effects of Funding Incentives on Special Education Enrollment" by Jay P. Greene and Greg Forster (Published by the Manhattan Institute, 2002).
"The Impact of Fiscal Incentives on Student Disability Rates" by Julie Berry Cullen (Published in the Journal of Public Economics, 2003)
Hannah - personally, I’ve been an active volunteer in the HCSD for at least 15 years. I’ve spent most of that time in the elementary school but I also started a lunch program in the high school to bring trades people and artists to meet, eat and speak with students.
ReplyDeleteJust about everyone I’ve met there is a dedicated professional or paraprofessional. There’s no question about individual ability or dedication among them.
But a group of dedicated people does not a team make. And a team is precisely what’s needed to allow a large, sprawling organization to accomplish its goals. And a team requires a leader. The obvious leadership vacuum is exactly what the critiques here have decried. No amount of money will make a leaderless crowd a team.
Shit superintendents are the cause of the problem while a BoE that spends its time attacking involved and dedicated community volunteers and their programs (see, e.g., the Book Festival cluster fuck) and defending their hiring of superintendents (not just one) wholly lacking in capacity and dedication are, in the final analysis, to blame.
John- I'm so glad you've been so involved with the school, and I agree we are in desperate need of a strong, visionary superintendent, who can galvanize more unity within our district! There have been several focus groups within the community to record everyone's opinion on important qualities for the next hire. Whomever they choose, I hope we all can rally behind them and give them our support, and cautious benefit of the doubt. Our district is complicated, and has been underperforming in many ways, but we can't give up on our students!
DeleteSpent time in the school. Yes very dedicated teachers. Would never deny them pay. .
ReplyDeleteAnd firmly believe that in every budget there is something that can be deleted. When retirees are scratching bottom please don’t expect us to be happy to fork over $ 10 million more dollars. As far as stop signs in blvds see cars blowing through them for years and a lot of school busses. So there’s another waste on the cost of the signs no one heeds. It’s always easy to spend someone else’s money.
Nobody is knocking on the teachers here. It’s the bloated administration and board and the system that guarantee a lack of accountability. Personally, I wish that there weren’t private schools and all parents would be forced to use the local district. I suspect things would be quite different if that were the case.
ReplyDelete