Without cuts, spending is expected to rise about 7.8% for the 2026-2027 school year, a figure that would require a large increase in school taxes and for the district to spend a significant amount of its unassigned fund balance--excess money that is supposed to serve as a rainy day fund.
But the situation is worse than that. Even if the school board were to approve a budget that would raise taxes by the maximum allowable amount this year--5.8%--and spend the maximum allowable amount of the unassigned fund balance, the district would be $2.58 short, or more than 4% of the total proposed budget of $63.1 million.
Gilson reports that Mark DePace, president of the Board of Education, asked the district to prepare plans for cutting $2.5 to $4.5 million from the proposed budget, "allowing for different options with tax increases and using the unassigned fund balance," before the next board meeting, which takes place on April 14.
This comment was submitted by Susan Troy via email:
ReplyDeleteCurious as to how many:
NASA astronauts
Professional (with contracts) athletes in any sport
Pulitzer Prize winners
Nobel Peace Prize winners
Academy Award winners
Lasker Award winners
Templeton Prize winners
Fields Medal winners
Booker Prize winners
Johan Skytte Award winners
Grammy Award winners
Julia Burke Award winners
National Medal of Arts winners
National Medal of Technology and Innovation Award winners
Medal of Honor recipients
the Hudson City School District has produced over the last quarter century.
Or, the accurate numbers of high school graduates - I'm certain someone can pull that data and prepare a graph - over the last twenty-five years, with the per pupil cost.
There are some truly mind-boggling things stated in this article. Apparently, the school district since 2016 may have been hiring staff without the school board being aware of it and thus, the salaries weren't accounted for in the budget.
ReplyDeleteDoes the HCSD not have a treasurer that would notice when staffing costs exceed the allotments in the budget?