Fort Plain BOE adopts 2012-13 budget

The Fort Plain Central School District Board of Education unanimously adopted the $18,600,000 school budget for 2012-13 on May 15. The proposed spending plan, which calls for a year-to-year spending increase of 2.48 percent, would carry a tax levy increase of 0.99 percent. The spending plan goes before voters on May 15.

The proposed tax levy falls under the district's calculated tax levy limit  under the new tax levy “cap” law. That means the proposed 2012-13 budget will require approval by a simple majority of voters to pass (50 percent plus 1).

To see a PDF of the instructional budget, click here.

The Board of Education crafted the proposed budget with a goal of maintaining programs without increasing taxes above the district’s tax levy limit (sometimes referred to in the media as a "2 percent tax cap"). As a result, the proposed spending plan includes no significant changes to the district's academic programs.

And despite the increased costs associated with employee health insurance and New York State Retirement System contributions, the proposed budget avoids deep staff and program cuts such as those the district made over the past few years to address funding shortfalls.

"We have been cutting from the budget all along," said Superintendent Douglas C. Burton. "We are by no means out of the woods, because ultimately, the state needs to change the way it distributes aid to public schools. But for the upcoming year, the board has crafted a budget that keeps programs intact without raising taxes over the tax levy limit."

To further reduce the need for program reductions, the proposal calls for the use of $850,000 in the district’s savings to help offset cuts to state aid. Fort Plain received a slight increase in foundation aid (the basic aid provided from the state) for 2012-13, but the state cut $803,409 in aid because of the Gap Elimination Adjustment, which is a reduction in state aid applied to all school districts in an effort to close the state's structural deficit.

The spending plan also proposes to limit the local tax impact by:

• Eliminating one elementary teaching position and one physical therapist position,

• Again no longer offering junior varsity fall and spring sports and reducing modified winter sports to one combined level,

• Continuing to eliminate field trips, reducing spending for textbooks, and

• Eliminating new equipment purchases.

A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 1, in the Jr./Sr. High School auditorium.