Now, More Than Ever, It Is Time for an "Emergency Intervention"

An Opinion Piece by Ken Sheffer

April 26, 2022

It should be a disappointment to all Hudson City School District (HCSD) taxpayers that the Hudson Common Council (and probably the Mayor) are going to meet and ask questions of the HCSD and Board of Education on May 9 in the Council Chamber, and this is why: It is a lost opportunity! The May 9 meeting takes place AFTER the entire budget process is over and the firm and final budget has been communicated to the District taxpayer well before that! The $55 million budget proposal is more than set in stone by May 9 (save for the crazy “double-dipping” budget process I’ll describe later), and nothing further can be done. Of course, the meeting date should be moved! No doubt that just having the meeting is progress in getting local and district leaders together to discuss runaway school budgets and a failing school system that seems to just be collapsing by almost any measure. 

But first, let me describe what I mean by “double-dipping” on your vote. It is the issue of the HCSD throwing NOT ONE, BUT TWO massive budgets at you on May 17--without you knowing it. Did you know you would be voting for two budgets on May 17? Do you even know what the difference is between these two budgets and who came up with them? Do you know if you have any recourse over this? If all your answers are no, then you are in good, majority company.

To add clarity, if you vote No on the main $55 million budget on May 17, the District still walks away with a very similar “contingency budget” that it can immediately implement. (The HCSD has not announced its contingency numbers for this year yet!) No second vote is needed. It’s right there on the ballot. Bring a magnifying glass and read it carefully. Either way you vote on May 17, you validate THEIR form of a “contingency budget.” It’s not illegal to do it this way; it is just supremely unethical since no one understands the trick they are pulling. The HCSD is actually taking two votes out of you on one ballot! 

Nevertheless, we should ALL vote No on the main budget and demand that the HCSD go back to the drawing board and present a “real contingency budget” on June 21, the mandated second vote date, and not trick us with their “double vote” ballot.

Let me begin by explaining the HCSD’s external discussions or writings or group chats or thought papers on its “contingency budget” calculations. It’s simple--there have been and will be NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. “Contingency budget” talks are like kryptonite to them. There is absolutely ZERO record in the BOE minutes or in the “records” of their failed community hearings. The reason is simple. They don’t really want you to know that your vote does not truly count. Frankly, they just want to get on with organizing for the school year ahead and don’t have any interest in the logistics of a second vote or the opinion of the community. It is the politics of expediency, and let there be no doubt, your No vote means nothing unless you are willing to shout in unison that you will not take this anymore. Otherwise, they will just march all over us every single year.

For further clarity and background, here are the facts behind a “contingency budget” based on the rules that the HCSD is obligated to follow (based on Questar III’s, State Ed’s office, the State Comptroller’s office, and the New York State School Board Association's handy rules and regs and booklets, in an amalgamated wrap-up here):

Questar III (the regional educational admin body that the HCSD belongs to*) outlines in their 2022 guidance to its clients, “What Happens If the School Budget Is NOT Approved”:

• If the proposed (main) budget is not approved by a simple majority
• The district may resubmit the original budget or submit a revised budget to the voters on the third Tuesday in June or in this case on June 21
• The district may also adopt a contingency budget that levies a tax no greater than that of the prior year (0% increase in the local tax levy) THIS IS WHAT IS ON THE MAY 17 BALLOT

• If the resubmitted/revised budget is not approved on June 21
• The BOE MUST adopt a “contingency budget” that levies a local tax no greater than the year before (0% increase)

Since 2011, with the establishment of the Property Tax cap, the spending cap calculation for “contingency budgets” has been tightened up with this simple calculation: In a “contingency budget,” the tax levy (amount of local taxes asked for by the District each year) can be no greater than the amount they asked the District to pay LAST YEAR. NO INCREASE in the local tax levy is allowed. 

Questar III goes on, in confusing fashion, to explain what is and isn’t a “contingency expense.” Here is what they say are things you cannot spend on in a “contingency budget”:

• Capital construction projects including transfers to capital funds
• Most equipment
• Certain student supplies
• School bus purchases
• New multi-year bus or building leases
• Rental of office equipment
• Salary increases for management confidential employees and civil service employees not covered by a collective bargaining deal

Questar III outlines costs that are allowed under a “contingency budget” such as the following:

• Operation and maintenance of the school buildings and educational program
• Expenses that preserve the property of the District
• Expenses that ensure the safety and health of the students and staff
• Expenses related to interscholastic athletics; extracurricular activities; field trips as well as related transportation
• Costs associated with pre-existing contracts--BUT, NO NEW CONTRACTS ALLOWED
• General Fund support for school lunches

The State Education Department explains it currently as follows:

Commencing with the 2021-2022 budgets, the notice for a “contingency budget” MUST INCLUDE, by law, a “description of how total spending and the tax levy resulting from the proposed main budget would compare with a projected “contingency budget” assuming the “contingency budget” is adopted on the same day as the proposed budget. Such comparisons have to be, by law, in total and by component (Program, Capital and Administrative), and must include a statement of the assumptions made in estimating the projected “contingency budget." 

Some school districts explain the “contingency budget” in clear and dramatic terms so that the public understands what is at stake, such as this description from a school in Western New York State: “Adopting a contingent budget PROHIBITS THE INCREASE OF THE LOCAL TAX LEVY! EVEN IN A FIRST VOTE!”

You get the picture. Describing “contingency budget” rules is like doing a 4,000 piece, all midnight blue jigsaw puzzle. Impossible. At first, the challenge seems worthy of your time until you realize the puzzle is rigged.

For the 2021-2022 budget, HCSD did follow the rules and put in its newsletter to you the outlines of a “contingency budget.” BUT, it never told you directly that they would simply take this “pamphlet notification” in 6-point type and your Yes or No vote as an approval of their “contingency budget.” This is not illegal, as the BOE is not obliged to put up a second vote to you, by law, but in terms of honest relations with the community, it seems to go without saying that they need to tell you the truth in clear terms.

So, here is how, even if you vote down a school budget (and the District goes back to the local tax levy of the previous year), the District is still able to budget MORE money than ever! Still with me?

Here’s how it’s done. In 2021-2022 (last year’s budget; the “contingency” numbers are not out yet for 2022-2023 YET!), they asked for the following as a “Main Budget” and a “Contingency Budget” with their respective “component breakdowns”:

2o21-2022

Main Budget            Contingency Budget              Difference

$52,244,404                 $52,109,873                                  -$132,531

 

Administrative Component

$4,531,984                    $4,416,452                                    -$115,532

Program Component

$38,971,673                   $38,967,673                                   -$4,000 

Capital Component

$8,740,747                     $8,725,748                                   -$14,999

                                                                              Total: $134,531

Now if you believe that our HCSD and BOE are so precise in their budgeting that they can splice the tiniest amount of $4,000 from their $38,971,673 (that’s 38 million, people!) so-called “Program Component,” then you clearly should vote for this budget. I think it is obvious that they just made up the numbers. There is no other explanation. There isn’t anything in the school world that only costs $4,000. Come on! This kind of behavior is simply a masterclass display of confusing the public. “Double-dipping” on votes and budgets, made easy because no one knows you are doing it. And the “contingency” number still ends up the largest budget in Hudson history! This is done year after year.

The ONLY upside to the “contingency budget” happening is that we do freeze our own local contribution to the District from last year’s number. SO, with ANY “CONTINGENCY BUDGET,” your own taxes CANNOT GO UP! And this is enough to vote No and to stop the tax landslide. This should be our first goal to stop the bleeding. But keep in mind that nothing you do will stop the District from its overspending. Nothing. You cannot stop them without massive changes and community outrage and involvement.

So, now the big question. How on earth does the District come up with its “contingency budget?” Is there a process? No! Is there a paper trail or a record of an open debate? Nope!  The simple answer is: NO ONE KNOWS! It’s their own secret recipe (which they probably don’t understand either).

Here’s a way to start to regain control. First, vote No on May 17. We should ask that the Hudson Board of Education declare immediately that it will hold a second vote on a real “contingency budget” if the main budget goes down on May 17. And all of those who are running for Board seats, or who are write-in, should sign on to this same pledge. Don’t give anyone your signature unless they agree to this. Without this check on their spending, we have no leverage. It is worthless to send more men and women into that boardroom only to repeat mind-numbing, public-ignoring, obnoxious, and greedy ways. All at the expense of those just trying to get ahead through EDUCATION! Demand a transparent “contingency budget” second vote. We can no longer afford to pay tons of money to under-educate our community of kids.

The Hudson Common Council has a role here now, too. It needs to demand an explanation of the failing grades and why we are very unfortunately leaving kids so far behind their peers. And the teachers who are out on a weak limb need a hand because there is zero mature oversight of their work environment. And then there is the lack of community involvement and pride in what education should mean to our once proud District.

(The Common Council should also ask about the voluntary 2 percent tax on all our utilities, propane, phones, electricity that brings in over a million dollars a year to the District . . . a tax that is totally voluntary to each District. Hudson should opt out like most smart districts are now doing with rising prices. You are allowed to. Check your heat and phone bills and get back to me!)

Now to the academics, which is what a Board of Education is ALL about. Miraculous timing has brought us the annual US News & World Report’s** National and New York State High School rankings TODAY (released April 26!), and the verdict on our Hudson High School is breathtakingly sad. The results follow in a chart with a comparison to the same rankings for 2021 (which I wrote about last year).

As an informational note, US News has implemented a new methodology change this year. For the first time, it is incorporating science state assessments in addition to its usual math and reading scores. Another change was necessitated by COVID and the cancellation of most state testing. The 2022 rankings have this year incorporated math and reading data from three previous years: 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019. Science scores are only from 2018-2019. As last year, the max score a high school can receive is 100, like a school test. But this year the scores are broken down in more specific weightings as follows:

Score Measures Used in 2022 by US News

• College readiness                                      30%
• State Assessment Proficiency                 20%
• State Assessment Performance              20%
• Underserved Student Performance       10%
• College Curriculum Breadth                   10%
• Graduation Rate                                        10%
• Total Possible Score                                100%

For clarity’s sake, I have compared the same thirteen area schools I looked at last year. (Click on the chart to enlarge.)

Here is what is NOT in the chart:

• The HCSD High School has fallen almost 4 points in its overall score and is slipping into the unrankable column (whereby US News does not bother to report the school’s performance)
• US News ranks 1,212 New York State High Schools. Hudson ranks as follows in NYS in the following categories:
• College Readiness–621st
• College Curriculum Breadth–718th
• State Assessment Proficiency – 806th
• State Assessment Performance–919th
• Graduation Rate–905th in the State! . . . And on this number, Hudson High School ranks 15,557th out of 17,843 high schools ranked nationally! We are at a cliff’s edge here folks!

In closing, I must say that, although I have attempted to highlight the “double-dipping” on the super-confusing “contingency budget” rules, I would conclude that, as the US News report came in today in full, I now know that this District does not need a “main budget” or a “contingency budget.” It needs an emergency intervention.

COPYRIGHT 2022 Ken Sheffer

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* Questar III BOCES delivers more than 275 educational and administrative services to twenty-three school districts in Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene counties (including Hudson). Questar III also provides statewide services to more than 640 school districts in New York State.

** US News & World Report, April 26, 2022