With the calendar flipping over to 2019, budget season has commenced for the Wallkill School District, and four months before the public will vote on a proposed 2019-2020 spending plan, the Wallkill administration provided a rollover budget to the Board of Education to provide an early look at a tentative plan. During the board meeting on Jan. 17 at Plattekill Elementary School, Wallkill Superintendent Kevin Castle noted that the proposed state budget recently released by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was not chock full of good news for school districts across the state, as the plan includes only a 0.5 percent increase in Foundation Aid.

If that figure were to hold, the governor’s budget would actually decrease state aid to districts from the 2018-2019 level. Lawmakers in Albany will hammer out the final numbers over the course of the next two months, and the district should know the final state aid total by the end of March if the state passes its budget on time. “Typically what we see at this point is that the legislators will have a meeting with the governor and they’ll be negotiations going on,” Castle said. “Over the last several years we have seen an increase from what the governor has proposed. So we’re being optimistic that we’ll see that. We’ll know more at the end of March in regards to our revenue.”

Castle said during the Thursday meeting that the district will meet with State Senators James Skoufis and Jen Metzger, along with Assemblymen Kevin Cahill and Brian Miller, in the coming weeks to make their case for increased state aid. The rollover budget currently includes a 3.71 percent budget to budget increase over last year’s approved $75,098,079 district budget, but that percentage is subject to change. “That’s just where we’re at right now, but it’ll be lower,” Castle said. “We still have a lot of information we need. What we do at this time of the year in January is that we take everything we have from this year projected out to next year with assumptions. Salaries and benefits is the biggest part of that, so you’re projecting that out. Then we learn more over the next couple of months. We’ll have retirees, and we don’t like losing our veteran teachers, but it does create a savings within the budget. We have to finalize BOCES costs too and the programs.”

Even with the tight state aid numbers, Assistant Superintendent Brian Devincenzi told the board that the district expects to stay within the tax cap for the seventh straight year while also maintaining all of its current programs. “Looking at it based on the teacher retirement system rate going down and early indications that the health insurance rates may be lower than what we’re projecting, along with the fund balance and reserves and retirements, because that all still has to come and we need more information over the next couple of months, besides fund balance and reserves, which we have projected out, I feel like we’ll be okay,” Castle said. “But it’s not just our district, it’s all school districts in New York State. You can’t sustain this. There needs to be another mechanism to fund schools from the state. Another formula that gives more predictability in regards to what we may be receiving in state aid each year. When the Foundation Aid was originally written, that was the purpose of it, it allowed school districts to plan better.”

Board of Education President Joseph LoCicero said the district has been able to maintain fiscal stability through long-term planning that can weather fluctuations in the state numbers. “We’re going to have to find out where the governor is going with his numbers, and we’re going to have to sit down and sharpen our pencil,” he said. “Obviously the district has a great team here with Kevin Castle and Brian Devincenzi. I’m not nervous in any way. I think that the budget will go well. We have things planned out for so many years ahead, that as long as the governor’s numbers are somewhat close, we can keep moving on. I have to say that I’m very proud of the team on how they run the budget and how they run the numbers. I think we’ve planned out to 2028 with the reserve numbers, so we’re ready to tackle it.”

The board meeting began with a presentation from Ulster BOCES District Superintendent Dr. Charles Khoury, who reported that the district had approximately $6 million in BOCES spending last year, although BOCES aid covers a percentage of that total. Khoury said that over 100 Wallkill students take part in the organization’s numerous educational programs. “Kids who may not necessarily be successful in the traditional classroom setting benefit from the programs that are offered at BOCES,” Castle said. “From the culinary program to aviation to automotive, these are a skill set that we need kids to have. Those jobs are available once they leave the walls of our schools, and it’s very beneficial to have. They provide a wide array of programs for our kids and we’re very appreciative of that partnership.”