At the past few meetings the Highland School Board and administration has been refining the budget for the 2024-25 school year. At this point the draft budget for next year, without going over the tax cap, is $53,934,046.

Lindsay Eidel, Highland’s Business Administrator, has reviewed the district’s revenue sources including the tax levy limit calculations and NYS Aid estimations.

Eidel said the district’s maximum tax limit calculation, without going over the tax cap, is 3.53 percent and was submitted on February 26, just before the March 1 deadline set by the NYS Comptroller. This leaves the total amount to be collected in taxes [tax levy] at $33,039,254 for the 2024-25 budget. This is an increase of $1,125,212 from the current school year.

Eidel presented a slide containing the district’s current Draft Budget Revenue numbers, noting that the NYS Aid the district is estimated to receive is $18,747,133, which is an increase of $185,864 from the current school year. She warned that this may change after April 1 when the New York State budget is scheduled to be finalized and released.

Eidel said Foundation Aid, which is part of the overall $18.7 million, has been about $12 million but is being cut by the Governor by $79,699.

Eidel noted that the $18.7 includes not only the Foundation Aid but also the district’s Transportation aid (up by $13,828), Building Aid (down by $126,125), software (down by $699) and BOCE’s (up by $71,533); “all of that aid is combined into that revenue source.”

Eidel pointed out that the amount of federal Medicaid Aid has been increased by $50,000 for a total of $200,000; Payment in Lieu of Taxes is up by $1,490 to $52,659; a slight increase of $25,000 is coming in from interest; the interfund transfer of $70,000 will go toward payments of the district’s debt and the fund balance is expected to be tapped by $1,150,000 as it was for the current school year.

Eidel said the numbers show that next year’s budget will see a revenue increase of $1,457,565 from the current school budget – from $52,476,480 to $53,934,046.

Eidel highlighted the projected increases in next year’s budget: Salaries up by $2,044,473; Benefits by $800,415; Debt Service at $291,357 and Universal Pre-K by $50,000 (10% comes from the district’s General Fund budget that is required by law), for a total of $3,136,245.

By way of a timeline, Eidel pointed out that for the 2022-23 school year expenses outpaced revenues by $983,293 and in 2023-24 the expenses were higher than revenues by $319,571. She pointed out that the federal ESSER grants that were provided to the district to address the impacts that covid-19 had on elementary and secondary schools enabled Highland to maintain balanced budgets. She said moving forward, however, the cuts in state aid and the end of the ESSER grants, leaves the district in the hole for $1,856,787. “We have to figure out how we’re going to balance the budget for 2024-25.”

Superintendent Joel Freer spoke about a few options for the school board to consider. He said if the Governor were to return money back into the Highland budget, “the first thing that she could do is to give us Save Harmless. This was enacted years ago to make sure that if we had some declining enrollment we were always promised the same amount that we were in the previous year so that we would never fall below...None of us across the state expected that Save Harmless would go away.”

Freer said even if the Governor returns money to Highland there will still be a deficit of $1,777,087, “from what our proposed expenditures are, if we were to roll our budget over, and the revenues that would come in.”

Freer said typically there is about a 3% growth factor that is factored into budgets, “and if that 3% was also added with the Save Harmless we’d still be in a deficit, but at $1,397,087.”

Freer said if the current proposed budget is rolled over, and the district found the cost savings for the overage of $1.8 million, “if that budget were to fail we would have to go up to $2.98 million.” The increase happens because the tax levy cannot be increased on a failed budget.

Freer said the other scenarios come down slightly if the Governor were to add money back into the budgets. If the Save Harmless were reinstated and the budget with an overage of $1.77 million were to fail, the district would have to go up to $2.9 million and if Save Harmless were reinstated and the Governor gave the district the three percent and if that budget were to fail, “we would still need to make some serious decisions in the district on how to bridge that gap and find $2.5 million.” He noted that these scenarios are all within the current tax cap, “and staying with it, as Highland has done for a number of years, this is where we stand as of today.”

Freer touched upon a number of budget reduction considerations that he said would be painful but in the end could result in a balanced budget: Reallocation of Administrative Duties; See if there can be savings in the supply and equipment lines in the budget; Looking at any retirements and attrition to see if programs can move forward with fewer staff members; Scrutinizing any mandated services that come down from the state along with any non-mandated services to see if they can find any cost savings and the last item Freer said, “is the hardest one for me,” looking at class sizes and course enrollments to find some savings because ¾ of the school budget is, “human, it’s people, it’s teaching assistants, custodians and bus drivers.”

Eidel reminded Highland residents that on May 21 they will not only be voting on a final 2024-25 budget but also on whether to purchase two 65-passenger propane buses at a cost not to exceed $357,360 and also to establish a Capital Reserve Fund to be used for renovations, construction or improvements to the school’s facilities at an amount not to exceed $10 million, plus accrued interest, over a 10-year period. She said this would allow the district to move money they already have in a Capital Reserve Fund that has a ten year term that is ending and move the money into a new Capital Reserve.

The district is asking residents to go to the homepage of the district’s website at www.highland-k12.org; click on ‘Community Action Needed’ and then click on the blue lettering ‘visiting this website’ and fill out the form that urges state officials to fully restore Foundation Aid for the Highland School District.