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Lansing School Superintendent Stephen Grimm recommended a $25,275,503 budget for the 2011-2012 school year at Monday's Board of Education Meeting.  Grimm said the school district can escape 'disasterland' for at least one more year by spending frugally and asking taxpayers to agree to pay a 4.37 higher tax rate than last summer to support a 1.5% budget increase.  Board members lined up on the side of making significant adjustments now, or taking another year to make decisions on how program will be affected.  Grimm made a case that the district has already made significant cuts that could total 44 positions over four years if proposed cuts for next year are implemented.

"If you want to cut more, I'll cut more," Grimm said.  But he passionately defended his recommendation to put off major cuts until next year.  "I am not going to recommend it because I think this is the budget we need to go with.  That's what I'm telling you.  That's what I'm telling the community.  I'm telling the teachers.  We have spent very frugally, and it is a daily painstaking task that the teachers and myself and the principals go through to be able to come up with a million dollars of appropriated fund balance.  It's there for a rainy day.  It is raining."

Grimm's plan puts most cuts on hold for another year.  He says that if reductions in state aid are not restored to some extent that next year the district will be looking at another million dollars of cuts.  But he adamantly said that those cuts are not necessary this year.  Even so a good $518,000 worth of cuts is planned for next year, including one high school math teacher, one K-6 teacher, a special education teacher, a teaching assistant, and .4 of a secondary science teaching position.

He also pointed out that the district has been responsible about budgeting and taxing over the past three years, the result of which is that Lansing is a year behind most other districts in New York in terms of facing disastrous cuts.  He noted that the district has reduced its workforce by two administrators, one technology integration staff member, 21.8 teachers and teaching assistants, and 19.2 support staff members.  That amounts to $2.5 million in personnel savings over four years, not to mention frugal spending that could mean over $1 million not spent in this year's budget that could help fill a $2.5 million budget gap in the next school year.

"We have been cutting and finding efficiencies over the last three years," Grimm said.  "The total reductions of 44 staff.  That's pretty significant when you look at it as a total picture.  We've hit the bare bones of reductions until we make some critical decisions about certain areas of our program."

But School Board member David Dittman argued that putting off cuts for another year could mean reducing reserves without any strategic gain for the district.  He said that taking out items that represent one-time savings do not address the problem.  He said that reductions have to be items that compound.  That means jobs because of contractual salary increases and out-of-control rises in the cost of benefits. 

"Every time we wait another year it's that number plus another 12% rise in benefits," he said.  "At some point in time you're going to run out of reserves.  With $1.4 million growth each year you are starting to look at double-digit tax increases.  At some point in time people will leave Lansing.  They'll give their houses away or burn them down because it's the only way to get out from under (these taxes).  The value of their homes is going to fall if taxes continue to go up at this rate, because who wants to buy that annuity?"

In the past Grimm and others have talked about delivering quality education in innovative ways with fewer resources, but Monday he questioned the definition of that.  He said that reducing teachers will come down to increasing class size.  That was something he and some board members were not willing to do without serious further consideration.  Board President Anne Drake advocated waiting.

"You've got to look at the whole picture," she said.  "You've got to take into consideration the students and the teachers, and how they're teaching and how the students are getting that education.  It's the whole picture.  It's not just money."

But Dittman said he wants to see authoritative research that shows whether larger class size really does have a negative impact on learning.

"Show me the research," he said.  "We can sit here and argue about it, but once there is research that is consistently replicated in the journals, then it's just a matter of opinion whether an extra five students in a class are going to cause a dip in education."


Grimm presented three scenarios for realizing a $25,275,503 budget.  The scenario with the lowest impact to taxpayers raises the tax rate just enough to make up for district income losses that come from the second renegotiation of the AES Cayuga power plant PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) agreement.  The first renegotiation amounted to a $30,000,000 reduction in the valuation of the plant, which Grimm says is the equivalent of 150 $200,000 homes leaving the district.  The new agreement reduces that an additional $17,500,000 which is like removing an additional 87.5 $200,000 homes.

"Where AES goes away the taxpayer must make up the difference or we must make cuts," said School Business Administrator Mary June King.  "That is simply how it's happened.  The tax rate will have to go from 18.48 to 18.74, a 1.42% increase in the tax rate just because of the AES Cayuga drop.  That has nothing to do with increasing the levy."

But Grimm says he is recommending the revenue plan with the highest impact, which would raise the levy by 2.5% and the tax rate by 4.37% to $19.29 per $1,000 of assessed value.  He estimates that would cost homeowners an additional $81 per $100,000 of property value.

King noted that the district now has a strategic plan in place with a significant financial piece that will guide future budgets in terms of using available funds for initiatives the district has decided are important to its mission.  She said that barring an unexpected disaster this year's fund balance will probably approach about $1.3 million, significantly helping to cushion the budget gap as it did when this year's budget was formed.

Board member Glenn Cobb agreed with Dittman that compounding expenses must be addressed.  Aziza Benson said the board needs to take a more proactive approach to changes the district will need to make.  Some board members agreed, saying that last year the board was to consider the changes, but has made no progress a year later.

Board member Christine Iacobucci agreed with Dittman's characterization of the problem the district faces, but said that without linking cuts to a program review that students and teachers could suffer unintended consequences.  She advocated taking more time to determine what those consequences would be, saying she would agree to go without program changes this year, but that conducting a program review must be done before changing things in a reasoned way.

"I think we should go with what the Superintendent has requested," said Drake.  "We should bide our time for another year."

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