Marlboro begins school budgeting process

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 2/3/21

In late January the Marlboro Administration and School Board began planning the budget for the 2021-22 school year. Superintendent Michael Brooks welcomed the new year and a new budget …

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Marlboro begins school budgeting process

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In late January the Marlboro Administration and School Board began planning the budget for the 2021-22 school year. Superintendent Michael Brooks welcomed the new year and a new budget season.

“I think we’re all very excited that we’re in 2021 and 2020 needed to be past us and it is,” he said. “Now we are beginning to think about what the next school year looks like.”

Brooks started by updating the board and the public on the Return To Learn program; In-person hybrid learning is open and the Hybrid A and Hybrid B children, the Tuesday/Thursday, Wednesday/Friday students are coming to class and students who are participating on the live-streaming.

“We are carefully monitoring through Orange and Ulster Counties the covid rates. We are seeing isolations and quarantines coming to those who have been infected by covid and to those who have been exposed to covid but not yet necessarily infected,” he said. “That has had an impact on our schools and I do appreciate our students and our staff being as flexible as possible. Recently, we had about 13 percent of our staff [about 43 to 47 individuals] out each day on either quarantines, isolations or just regular illness. This is still manageable, so it’s our intention to continue on with in-person live instruction as long as we possibly can.”

Brooks offered a “snapshot” of the district’s current educational status: 93 percent of Marlboro High School students graduate with a Regents Diploma and all of the district’s school are in “Good Standing” on their overall NYS Report Card.

“I have to acknowledge that this is absolutely a reflection of our k-12 effort,” he said. “Our teachers, from kindergarten right straight though to the 12th grade, know what the goal is; we want our children to graduate with the richest experiences of courses and exposure to knowledge in their classrooms with the highest level of a diploma that they can possibly achieve. Thank you staff and students for working so hard.”

Brooks said the Vision 2020 construction project is currently on time and on budget. He said a full, in-depth presentation of the capital project will be given at the February 25 school board meeting by the construction and architectural teams. Brooks listed the upgrades at the High School, the Main Office, the Nursing Suite, the Student Services office, the Fitness Center and Athletics Area as well as the Track and Field areas.

“They are well into their progress and things are going extraordinarily well, as a matter of fact,” he said. After this phase, work in the Art and Technology areas will begin.

At the Middle School an exterior retaining wall has been built that will allow for the construction of the new music and auditorium addition. Work will soon begin on the Student Services and technology suites, with three classrooms for technology support.

Turning to the district’s economic outlook, Brooks said in the short term, concerning 2020-21 finances, the district has been navigating through a very challenging year. He said there is a threat from the Governor of holding back 20% of the district’s state aid but recent news indicates that may drop to 5%, however, Brooks stressed that this was made at a press conference with the Governor and not in writing.

“We have seen nothing official on that but it’s just from a power point presentation developed by our Governor but we have to watch very carefully where the Governor’s proposals go.” If state aid for next year ends up being less than this year, Brooks is hoping it can be fixed at the Federal and/or State levels.

Brooks said every year the district produces a five year financial outlook that helps, “set the stage of where we are in our budget development,” for the following year.

Brooks said the intent is to keep next year’s school budget the same as this year – $58,363,438, or a zero percent increase. He said they are also planning to reduce the amount of appropriated fund balance the district taps each year; for 2020-21 the district used $3.4 million and the goal for next year is to only use $2.6 million from that fund.
Brooks said in the effort to present a zero percent budget for next year, the Administration is presently reviewing all existing expenses and departments with all principals, department heads and office staff. He said the main cost drivers in the budget are salaries and benefits as well as contractual labor costs.

Brooks said the district is waiting to see what the final BOCES costs will be for their Special and Regular Education program services for 2021-22. The district is also looking at what the enrollment will be for in-district and out of district educational programming and their related costs, something that is reviewed annually.

Brooks said the district anticipated a state aid package for the 2020-21 school year of $16,167,531 and last week the governor’s published proposed state aid for 2021-22 is $16,025,927, a net decrease of $141,604. He noted that the actual tax levy for the 2020-21 school budget was $36,331,599 but what that figure will be for next year has yet to be determined.

“The way that the levy works out will be dependent upon how the remainder of this year goes and how our state aid package goes,” Brooks said. “This board and this Superintendent would like nothing better than to have the levy come in lower...We’re doing everything we can to control costs and trying to minimize the impact to the taxpayers every way we possibly can. We need the Governor and the state legislature to come up with a package that works for everybody.”

The school board expects to adopt a budget for next year on April 22 and the public will vote on the final 2021-22 budget on May 18. Brooks is hoping by then that the vote can be held in person in the Marlborough Town Court Room from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.