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?
Time to make some hard choices.
ReplyDeleteWell at least the City of Hudson property taxes are coming down and we have a mayor who is committed to not raising taxes locally, in a state that already has the highest taxes in the country...
DeleteOur taxes are coming down? How’s that? There’s been neither a new budget, a revaluation nor a new tax warrant issued since the last round. On what basis do you posit our taxes are going down? Beyond these basic mechanics, there’s no evidence that either the mayor or council are initiating a legislative policy program of any sort, let alone one that would yield a lower property tax levy.
DeleteThis is not unique to Hudson. The shortfalls are showing themselves at districts all around NY and in the millions. Take a look at this budget and shortfall... https://wjffradio.org/community-pushback-grows-over-rondout-valley-school-budget-cuts/
ReplyDeleteI think MS misses the point of Gilson's story. It's not difficulties in finding money for programs, which is a pretty standard challenge; it is the misuse of an accounting program which puts the district at significant peril. I had asked the BOE for a forensic audit over a year ago when Supt Pennyman and some of her staff were registering some odd behaviors. Had the board done that audit, they might have avoided the serious problems they now have. Could this be why Pennyman abruptly "resigned" last year?
DeleteI understand it, and if you look at other school districts, it’s a misuse of accounting, not simply finding money for programs. They didn’t raise the budget adequately in past years, and now cannot request the needed amount due to % caps. It’s all mismanagement regardless of who or what led to the problem. And a side note, Rondout now has Hudson’s former financial chief.
DeleteThis sounds a lot like Wag the Dog, the '97 movie about a president who started a war to shift news away from a brewing scandal. Contacted by a source in the District, there are "many people from past administrations upset over this article as [the current administration is] trying to push blame [to them] when the blame should be on them and the last few years…many [current employees] are losing their jobs over this [current] budget fiasco…." Stay tuned.
ReplyDeleteThe list of Nobel Prize winners and astronauts feels less like a genuine question and more like a way of implying that local students aren’t “impressive enough” to justify investment.
ReplyDeleteThat’s a pretty narrow—and frankly elitist—way to measure the value of a public school system. By that logic, most districts in the country would be written off as failures, which says more about the metric than the schools.
Public education isn’t designed to mass-produce globally decorated outliers. It’s meant to educate an entire community—students who go on to build lives, families, businesses, and, yes, the very towns people later decide are worth moving to.
Reducing that to a comparison with once-in-a-generation achievements doesn’t just miss the point—it ends up dismissing the majority of people who come through these schools and contribute in ways that don’t come with a trophy attached.
And more broadly, a lot of this discussion seems focused on metrics, blame, or tax impact, but not much on the actual impact these decisions will have on students and families. That feels like the real issue being missed in this thread.
If we’re going to have this conversation, it should be grounded in what these choices mean for the people who live here—not just what they cost or who to blame.
Simply on the basis of outcomes, the HCSD sucks. Flat out. Framing critique as “elitist” or anything else along such lines ignores the fact that many of students are obviously poorly served by the district. And denigrating the costs to the tax payers devalues the hard work and sacrifice most families make of focus on their children’s education.
DeleteI think John and Susan make a similar point: it's pretty easy to get the data that shows that HCSD students aren't performing (2/3 of our students read below grade level). It's also easy to get the data that many of HCSD students have performed well (1/3 at or above grade level). And if you parse the data a little differently, it's costing almost a million dollars to graduate one of our students. The fact is, we have hundreds of schools all over the country with Hudson's demographics -- high poverty and poor parents -- who are educating those kids quite well. No more blaming the victims or saddling taxpayers with bad academic programs, please.
DeleteThis comment was submitted by Susan Troy via email:
DeleteHello Lily,
I'm curious if you are a graduate of the HCSD? Or if you have ever worked for, or volunteered in, the HCSD? Are you the parent of a child or children currently being educated in the HCSD?
I'm also curious what your top number is, per child, in terms of investment taxpayers should be mandated to pay to attempt to educate HCSD students? We're at $40K now/student, and clearly not succeeding. So how about $50K/child? $75K/student? As a homeowner in the HCSD, how much are you willing and able to pay in school taxes? A specific number would be great, just for argument's sake.
Curious too I am about your perception of people with local jobs, earning local wages - not someone like my (absolutely lovely occasional weekend/holiday) neighbor, for example, who is a play write - and their financial ability to continue to be mandated to pay higher and higher school taxes while not even getting in many cases, costs of living adjustments? Curious to hear how you think these families are impacted? Again, specifics would be great.
As for that fancy word, "metrics". . .again, you know that expression "Curiosity killed the cat". . .well I'm curious what percentage of the HCSD student body not reading at grade level are you comfortable with? Is it ten per cent of the total student body? Is it twenty percent? What specific number of kids not reading at grade level - forget about the trophies, even the participation trophies - do we need to get to, before you become alarmed? Because as you and I both know - I think you know this - if you can't read, you can't get a job; can't get a driver's license; can't rent an apartment; can't post on TGOR; can't apply for. . .well, anything. And if one can't do any of the aforementioned things, you can't go on to "build lives, families, businesses".
Happy Easter!
They are out of control.
ReplyDeleteWe have the core metrics:
ReplyDelete- Literacy/Numeracy, compared to other schools and other states.
- National Merit Scholar Finalists and Semifinalists (which HCSD has not shared).
- Cost per student.
- Tax rate per $1k of home value.
Public schools should get everyone literate and equipped to be a good citizen... but do not let us break out the "real data" to show that most Nobel laureates and academic stars around the world come from public schools, even if they have to be selective magnet schools like Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, or James Madison High, which all boast half a dozen Nobel laureates or more, not to mention RBG!
The real issue here is coercion of taxpayers and parents, which is un-American, and harms the most vulnerable students and taxpayers.
Unlike the majority of other states, in NY we cannot opt out of HCSD taxes, and we cannot apply the spending on education to more productive education areas/organizations, meaning there is virtually no legal path for taxpayers to take action, parents to get a better school, unless if they pay twice. School taxes, and private school fees. This is unfair.
Thought experiment:
Why don't we give every household in the HCSD catchment area the choice:
$20k per child and you can spend it where and how you will on your child's education, OR stay in HCSD at a $40k per student annual cost.
If Hudson and New York are like the rest of the country, that introduction of competition and freedom to choose will instantly improve HCSD itself, as well as alternatives that can better cater to unique needs, cultural preferences, academic / vocational path preferences etc.
Turns out 33 of 50 states do some version of this and in states with robust school choice, parents are overwhelmingly more satisfied with their children's education, public schools are forced to compete (good) rather than rely on a captive base, and ... the sky has not fallen on public education as critics predicted.
Have to disagree: the real issue here is that uneducated and non-thinking children become non-functioning adults. Yes, the money is ridiculous but we'd all probably accept it if it was producing positive results.
DeleteBut you're right insofar as something has to change: continuing to muddle along with a fatally flawed system is beyond stupid. It's destructive. Unfortunately, there is no mechanism in the NYS education system to publicly shame the administrators who have "led" this shameful destruction of a once-working school district.
It's telling that not one administrator or teacher has anything to say -- anonymously or otherwise -- about what's really happening at the HCSD. Too ashamed or frightened or guilty or . . .? If only we had a state representative who seemed to give a damn.
All fair points, John.
DeleteOne of the more interesting things we have noticed, especially within the City of Hudson's "luxury belief" class, so focussed on the "youth" fundraising... yet very few of those unelected "leaders" take-on the HCSD.
So where HCSD fails, we now double pay in City of Hudson taxes for the $850k Youth Center, and then we double pay in New York State taxes for $7m Kite's Nest, and then we are also asked to make private donations to FOHY or GHPN (and their new Assistant Director...)
Imagine if the leadership of Friends of Hudson Youth spent their time fixing HCSD. Instead of raising anew (albeit worthy and commendable) $250k per year from residents who are already paying school taxes, imagine if they helped lower HCSD's taxes by $10m and helped the remaining $50m be spent better.
What is it about the broken local incentivize structure that leads to more groups, raising more money, driving out the middle class with higher taxes... rather than just fixing the root problem.
Does running a not for profit confer more status on its leaders than being a public school reformer?
Is it the lack of oversight?
An NGO leader can decide, we must do X with Y public space, and does not need to get buy-in from a school board or tax payers?
Is this like a maximum status, minimum responsibility thing?
~
Link to "Luxury Beliefs" in the WSJ by Rob Henderson.
"Today, when luxury goods are more accessible to ordinary people than ever before, the elite need other ways to broadcast their social position. This helps explain why so many are now decoupling class from material goods and attaching it to beliefs.
Take vocabulary. Your typical working-class American could not tell you what “heteronormative” or “cisgender” means. When someone uses the phrase “cultural appropriation,” what they are really saying is, “I was educated at a top college.” Only the affluent can afford to learn strange vocabulary. Ordinary people have real problems to worry about."
https://tinyurl.com/2vcxvf4f