Posted by By Parker Reed and Georgia Schultz, Staff Writers
After all the dust settled, the New Paltz Central School District budget for 2023-24 passed by a wide margin on May 16th. While the last several board of education meetings have been contentious, the New Paltz community offered its overwhelming support of its school.
Due to a demanding deficit and unstable funds, New Paltz School District has had a complicated season solidifying a plan for the budget. Many were apprehensive about a raise in property taxes while others still worried about a loss of necessary staff like counselors and therapists.
“Creating a school budget for [next] school year has been very difficult,” Stephen Gratto, NPCSD Superintendent, said in a district bulletin. “In order to create a responsible budget that preserved programs, we needed to closely evaluate all of our needs and all of our spending.”
But now, as the public has taken to the polls, their alarming questions regarding deficits, job cuts, and an uncertain economic future have subsided – if only for one more year.
With the passage of the budget and new specifics on the financial plan for this upcoming school year, the district has elected two new school board members–Heather Kort, and Liz Bonhag. The district has also recommended the demolition of the former district office at 196 Main St. What remains on the minds of the public is the deficit and how the district’s rapidly depleting funds will shape the future of our children’s education.
Simply put, the overall estimated expenses next year outnumbers the total revenue expected, leaving behind a deficit of nearly $5 million. The good news? The budget passed on May 16th contained approximately $1,200,000 more in capital aid for our school district than previously anticipated; money that will now be allocated to cover some of the deficit spendings.
To further counteract the hefty expenses, the tax levy on properties will be raised slightly to 1.23%. If it were raised any higher, it would exceed the tax cap, meaning a greater increase in the public’s property tax. Combined with changes and cuts in the budget itself, this tax increase should help alleviate some of the deficit’s long-term issues while also keeping costs relatively low for New Paltz residents.
To further complicate matters, there is a reported loss of 500 students in the school’s total enrollment in the past six years has been consistent with other nearby schools, causing administrators to question the necessity of New Paltz’s high teacher-to-student ratio, especially in elementary schools. With enrollment dropping and class sizes decreasing, the board of education has decided to let go of four elementary school teachers, six aides, and special education teachers, as well as leave retiring teacher positions unfulfilled. These cuts alone will ultimately save almost 1.5 million dollars, however, it’s still not enough. Students and teachers have shared their concerns surrounding these cuts. Many feel that although there aren’t other alternatives, cutting teachers and the support system students have created shouldn’t be the first on the chopping block.
“Smaller class sizes have allowed us as teachers to offer tier one and tier two services within the classroom, to help address our students’ needs pre and post pandemic,” conveyed a Lenape faculty member in front of the board on March 15th.
Although many faculty members came to this meeting to try and halt these proposed faculty cuts, the board of education decided these designated changes were the least damaging to implement.
To try and further alleviate the daunting deficit, Gratto and the board are now implementing nearly half a million dollars in cuts to BOCES services, the loss of one administrator, and a host of other small and miscellaneous costs. By the end of these reductions, there are still 2.5 million dollars to make up and not many solutions left before bigger decisions will have to be considered.
“It’s important to realize that next year will be difficult as well,” Gratto had explained to a restless crowd on March 17th. “Funding for [the federal grant] will be gone, and the school board will have tough choices to make as they decide whether these items should be eliminated or moved to the general fund.”
One of the major issues of concern regarding the draining federal fund is the potential loss of social workers throughout the district, causing members of the community to speak out and show their indignation at the proposed plan.
For this reason, on March 15, members of the community flocked to the board meeting, in attempts to heighten awareness of the effects a lack of social workers in the district could cause.
“I have been in this school system for 11 years,” Aki Densmore, a junior at the high school explained to the board. “And everytime I have been entirely supported by every teacher I have encountered, to the extent that I felt almost more at home in this school than in my actual house.”
Many students and parents echo Densmore’s words. The personalized and thoughtful opportunity that having school sanctioned therapists and teachers provides is not just a privilege, but a necessity.
“In ninth grade I was struggling a lot,” Densmore continued to explain to the Board. “I went through a period where I was failing all of my classes. I felt completely isolated, I was at home all the time, I was skipping classes. That was before I got involved with the social work at Astor. What she provided for me was a personalized way of dealing with my home situation. It was very catered to my specific needs. If I didn’t have that, I would be nowhere near as successful as I am today.”
“We haven’t even touched the beginning of the rolling impacts of Covid,” one citizen said at public comment, highlighting her condemnation of the proposed cut that was later rescinded. “This is a long-term issue. If we don’t provide the support to our kids, they will be impacted academically, as well as socially and emotionally.”
The board of education listened to the people, now providing funding for social workers and the Astor program through the depleting federal grant. The passage of the proposed budget plan, including the federal grant and the reductions, has allotted more time to figure out a viable solution for the budget; it is not a finality. For this reason, the NPCSD community must not dismiss this budget altogether now that the votes are in. Many aspects of the plan will be just as relevant next year as it is now. These problems are not going away anytime soon.
However, numerous members of the community claimed that this non-permanent solution only avoids the problem at hand.
“I’m trying to find a graduated way, if we all truly believe these are roles we want to keep, how we could do it,” one participant weighed in. “Saying ‘oh we will fund you for a year’, and next year we are at the table again going ‘ugh we will fund you for another year’, it’s just not sustainable.”
“We are fortunate to live in a time and place where your voice matters and your vote counts”
Erika Eisenberg
Many called to take this plan to legislation, as a way to get permanent funding in the future for mental health within the school. Others looked for ways to keep property taxes down, or further mitigate these high costs.
But one fact remains stubbornly obvious. Next year, this conversation will be even more difficult. We won’t have the option of the grant to try and alleviate losses. We keep having these conversations year after year, and now time is running out and solutions are running thin.
“We are fortunate to live in a time and place where your voice matters and your vote counts,” explained community member Erika Eisenberg outside the polls. “Not everybody has that, so I think it is easy for that to get lost sometimes.
New Paltz is spoken of in high regard when it comes to our tight-knit community, and this is not the time to let go of this belief. Considering the gravity of this situation, community members are urged to participate in the voting process because any decisions made at the polls will have an impact on the town’s upcoming classes. And like any serious decision, the outcome has to be decided by the majority, underlining the importance of the individual vote. Because there is no simple solution, any decisions made, today or in the future, will affect the quality of future students’ educational experiences.
“So regardless of where you stand, on either position, candidate, or policy,” Eisenberg continues, “voting is the thing that we get to do that determines our outcomes. So even though it is always important, it is crucial now. “
The Maroon 