Released by the school district:
Highlights from the BCSD Board of Education meeting on Oct. 17, 2011, include the following:
One Vote Each Day Can Yield $50,000 for Music Department
Student Ex-officio Board Member Taylor Harkness reported on an opportunity for the district’s music department to win up to $50,000 by having people vote at least once each day through early November for a quartet from the district’s student ensemble, The Batavia Blue Belles.
Citing drastic cuts to education, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC, Ryan Murphy (the creator of GLEE), and the National Association for Music Education teamed up to create a music-celebrating contest to support music education to the tune of $1 million. The Blue Belles -- including members Melzie Case, Sarah DiBacco, Catherine McAllister, and Catherine Taylor, working under the direction of district vocal teacher Daniel Grillo -- entered the nationwide contest to compete for one of three Grand Prizes for $50,000 each. There are also 10 First Prizes for $25,000 each and 60 Second Prizes for $10,000 each.
Winning is based on public vote, and all community members (as well as other family and friends who would like to support the music department) can vote for The Blue Belles once per day per computer IP address until Nov. 7. To vote, go to www.gleegiveanote.com, click on “VOTE NOW”, type in “BATAVIA HIGH SCHOOL” in the box for entering school name, click on the video clip of the Batavia Blue Belles, and click “VOTE”. Winners will be announced Dec. 15.
Parent Shares Concern Regarding Consolidation
While acknowledging that the Board of Education and administrators have been responsive to hearing parents' and residents' concerns about consolidation proposals and thanking them for their consideration, as well as the decision to postpone a vote on the proposal until March 2012, one parent attended the meeting to urge board members not to vote for any proposal that would include moving fifth-grade students to the middle school. Stating that she had spoken to various individuals who work with youth and with troubled youth, she believes, overall, it is not beneficial to the fifth-graders to be moved to the middle school.
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Board Vacancy Applications Received
Superintendent of Schools Margaret Puzio publicly thanked Andy Pedro for his years of work for the students and community through his service on the Board of Education, which will end on Nov. 1. The ensuing vacancy to finish out his term (through June 30, 2012) has been announced, with five individuals expressing interest in the position.
Those applicants are: Phil Ricci, Alfred McGinnis, Dennis Warner, Raymond Walker and Rodney Brinkman. The board plans on reviewing each application and interviewing all five individuals on or about Monday, Oct. 24 so that a timely decision can be made.
Changes to Budget Voting Procedure
In response to parents’ requests voiced at several public meetings, the board approved a plan presented by business administrator Scott Rozanski to change polling hours for the district’s annual vote on proposed budgets and board member elections. Rather than being open from noon to 9 p.m., polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. Parents had said that earlier polling hours would help accommodate work schedules.
In addition, Mr. Rozanski proposed that the number of polling places for the budget vote also be revised for greater cost efficiency. Instead of three polling places (Robert Morris Elementary, Batavia Middle School, and Jackson Elementary), he proposed that there be two, and that those locations would be Batavia High School and John Kennedy Elementary. Both BHS and JK, he noted, have better parking and ease of access, and redrawing voting districts to assign a voting location should be a simple process. Once done, the proposal can be brought back to the board for a vote. Board Member Pat Burk suggested that all Town of Batavia residents vote at one location, as he has observed much confusion through the years as to how their proper voting site is determined.
External Audit Report
David Mancuso of Freed Maxick & Battaglia, CPXs, PC, presented a summary of their audit of the basic financial statements of the district for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2011, indicating that there were no significant, unusual, or controversial transactions or accounting practices.
Some specific points from the report and presentation follow.
The district currently maintains an A1 credit rating from Moody’s Credit Corporation, which is among the highest in Genesee County.
Amid uncertain economic times, the district has been successful in efforts to spend and budget conservatively, as well as to plan for the long term by setting funds aside in reserve for specific areas of concern: unemployment insurance, NYS employees retirement, repairs, and employee benefit liability. In an economic climate where the future is likely to see reduced state aid as well as increased expenses, continued economic conservatism is to be encouraged.
The district has been able to have a minor tax levy over the past five years, averaging .5 percent, while at the same time maintaining most of the educational program offerings.
The district finished the year with an unexpected general fund surplus of approximately $730,000. This was primarily due to conservative budget estimates in difficult-to-predict categories such as to special education services, foster care tuition, and utilities; being able to cover some budgeted payroll costs with money from grants; savings in transportation that were achieved by bidding out and consolidating routes. The district was able to put this money into unemployment reserves to help with current and future staff reductions.
The audit also noted that the approval for the transfer of the above-mentioned surplus to the reserve fund was secured after the official state deadline of June 30 (when the fiscal year ended). The recommendation for the future was to have to obtain the necessary open-ended authorization before the deadline.
The unassigned fund balance (formerly referred to as undesignated fund balance) of the district’s general fund was $1,443,354 and this amount was within the state’s limit of 4 percent of the ensuing year’s budget, excluding of the amount designated for the subsequent year’s budget.
Two items related to the fundraising for extracurricular activities which pose difficulty for most school districts are (1) there being no irrefutable accountability for student fundraising activities from the time a student collects the donation or payment from a donor/customer until the money gets delivered to the dstrict; and (2) a recommendation that student organizations be treated as small businesses and have members prepare a program outline similar to a business plan at the beginning of the school year for approval. The outline would include projected expenses for and profits from events, and plans for the accumulated funds. Then, as each event is completed, a profit/loss analysis should be filed.
The complete report will be available on the district’s website (www.bataviacsd.org) : go to the “District” tab for a drop-down menu, scroll down and click on “Business Office”, click on “Financial Reports,” then scroll down to the appropriate report.
Legislative Items to be Addressed at School Boards Convention
Board Member Pat Burk, who is also a Resolutions Committee member for the NYS School Boards Association (NYSSBA), presented the 2011 Proposed Resolutions and Voting Delegate’s Guide for the Annual Business Meeting of the NYSSBA. He asked board members to review all of the proposals and respond to him with their comments and recommendations before he votes at the NYSSBA meeting in late October.
While much greater detail is available on the NYSSBA website (www.nyssba.org), the proposed resolutions listed below provide a quick guide to the scope of concerns and challenges facing NYS boards of education:
Tuition Tax Credit and Educational Vouchers -- to oppose legislation at the state and/or federal level that would provide tuition tax credits or educational vouchers for private or parochial schools.
Standards for Education Funding Reform -- to demand that the New York State Legislature act now to reform the state education funding system in a manner that provides for:
• Adequacy – to provide sufficient resources to assure the opportunity for a sound basic education for all students.
• Equity – to distribute a foundation level of state aid for every student that is based on the actual cost of providing a sound basic education that fairly compensates for differences in community costs, needs and resources. The legislature should preclude municipalities from using state aid to replace local education resources.
• Flexibility – to increase the percentage of operating aid so that boards of education retain the discretion to determine what educational programs best address local needs. Local communities should not be restrained from determining the level of funding they will expend to support educational programs.
• Predictability – to provide timely passage of the state budget and stable funding distributed through a consistent, uniformly applied formula that would not require annual manipulation by the legislature and that would facilitate long-term planning by school districts.
• Clarity – to establish a funding formula that is easily explained and understood.
Principles of 21st Century Retirement Benefits -- to seek legislation based on the following Principles of 21st Century Retirement Benefits: Portability, Predictability, Affordability, Flexibility, and Acceptable Risk.
Pension Contribution Reserve Funds -- to support legislation amending Chapter 260 of the Laws of 2004 to permit boards of education and boards of cooperative educational services to establish pension contribution reserve funds for all employees and to authorize such boards to deposit surplus monies into such funds.
State Share of District Superintendent Salary -- to support the continued appropriation of the state share of the district superintendent’s salary.
Reserve Fund for Other Post-Employment Benefits -- to seek legislation authorizing school districts to create a new reserve fund to finance Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) as envisioned under Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 45.
District Superintendent Salary Cap -- to seek legislation amending Education Law Section 1950(4)(a) to repeal the limitation on the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) district superintendents’ salaries.
Technological Consolidation -- in support of the use of video conferencing, online learning and other digital technologies to achieve greater efficiency in school district organization. These efforts will include, but not be limited to: a) the use of State Education Department (SED) reorganization feasibility study grants for use by school districts wishing to compare “cyber-consolidation” to physical consolidation; and b) the use of reorganization aid to help offset the costs of the technology infrastructure necessary for districts to consolidate educational services in this manner.
School District Retirement Contributions -- to seek legislation to create new pension tiers of the state Employees’ Retirement System and Teachers’ Retirement System that would provide the predictability and affordability that would limit school district contributions.
Performance Pay for Teachers -- to seek legislation to change the current system of teacher compensation in favor of a system where teachers are compensated for meeting local performance benchmarks.
Change in Tax Collection Schedule -- to support legislation which would permit school tax collection schedule(s) to be adjusted to minimize the need for school district borrowing so as to permit tax collections to coincide with encumbrances that are incurred by such school districts.
Cooperative Purchasing for School Districts -- to seek legislation to authorize school districts and other local municipalities the ability to purchase through national purchasing cooperatives.
Teacher Layoff Rules -- to seek legislation that would limit teacher seniority in determining the process of teacher layoffs.
Civil Service Law Reform -- to seek and support legislation amending the New York State Civil Service Law so that it is more responsive to the current needs of school districts and the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), including, but not limited to: increasing disciplinary options; updating tests and specification books; creating more flexibility in hiring lists; providing lists in electronic form; and increasing probationary periods.
Employee and Retiree Health Care Contributions -- to seek legislation requiring current and retired school employees to contribute at least 15 percent of the cost of individual health care coverage and at least 25 percent of the cost of family health care coverage.
Conforming Special Education to Federal Requirements -- to seek legislation to limit state special education mandates to those required by the federal government.
Placement of Students with a Disability -- to support efforts, and recommend legislation and/or regulations, to ensure that the New York State Education Department (SED) facilitates the ability of school districts to locate out-of-state placements for the appropriate placement of students with a disability when no SED-approved residential school may be determined as appropriate from the list of SED-approved schools.
Teacher Retirement and Health Care Reserve Funds -- to seek legislation to authorize school districts to create dedicated reserve funds to help offset the costs of teacher pensions and retiree healthcare costs.
Core Principles of Education Policy -- in support of state proposals affecting public education be evaluated according to the following core principles: provide access to programs that prepare students to be college and career ready; achieve equity and adequacy in funding; promote efficiency and cost-effectiveness; advance high expectations for all students; embrace innovative approaches; and foster community engagement and regional cooperation.
