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By Abi Wood
On April 19, the Board of Education released the budget which will be voted on by the public on May 15. The information the board presented can be found at http://www.galwaycsd.org/board_education.cfm?subpage=1316315 on any of the documents labeled “April 19”.
This budget does not, however, account for any possible pay freezes since negotiations are ongoing with the three district bargaining units, including the teachers’ union. Mrs. LaBelle stated the negotiations are “moving forward and progress is being made.” The school is also still considering doing a single bus run in the afternoon.
Last year the school cut 21 positions however this year there are only 5.5 positions being cut. LaBelle commented “It’s still not what we want, but we’re doing better than we thought.”
After a meeting with the superintendents from other BOCES schools, only Stillwater reported that they were proposing a budget that went over the tax cap. The Galway budget is under the tax cap and only needs to be passed by a simple majority vote.
The board responded to questions about the specific programs that might be brought back under the “TBD” categories by saying that they “don’t know” and the information will be passed along to the students and the public as soon as possible.
Dr. Sakala questioned the cut of elementary art and brought up the statistic that only $225 is spent per student to fund the program, making it one of the cheapest classes. The board said that one of the first things to be saved if negotiations result in saved funds is the reinstatement of an art teacher.
The budget for sports next year is $118,000 based on costs this year. At this time no specific sports have been chosen to be saved on the basis that they will look at participation of the different sports, but also what our competing schools are offering. There would be little point to maintaining a specific varsity sport if we had no competitors, so that will be investigated more thoroughly.
Mrs. Valente discussed the idea of alternate funding for the school, specifically in regards to the parents who currently send their children to other schools. If you add up the tuition of these students you get over $200,000. Her idea is to pool this money to fund specific programs in our school. Another community member also commented that it would be very beneficial for the district to implement a policy that allows for gifts from the public.
One concerned student commented after the meeting, “I don’t understand why the board didn’t try to pass a higher budget. I feel like they have given up on us.”
What do you think about the budget? Please leave comments below.
jennica • May 4, 2012 at 5:43 am
well when my mom went to school she said they were facing the same issue, however they found away to get through it, if they didn’t we might have not grown up there, i think tht the school will eventually get through this too. It may take awhile but the wait is worth it, however i still agree that poorer school should get money before the wealthy schools
Courtney • Apr 27, 2012 at 1:10 pm
It does seem like they just gave up on us. Its really sad, all the budget cuts our small school is suffering from while other, much more wealthier schools have it easily. They are the ones with better money, so why should they recieve more? Galways not exactly poor but we airnt drowing in money like other schools either. I think that really needs to get taken into consideration. I remember mr.U almost crying at one budget meeting because of this, and because they simpley are just giving up on little Galway. :/
Laura Sakala • Apr 21, 2012 at 9:51 am
Abi, thank you for the tremendous job you have done reporting on the budget process. I do, however, have to make a correction to your latest article. Although very flattering, I have not earned the title of Dr. and wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of that. I am just plain Mrs. Sakala, but not ashamed to say so!
I share the sentiments of the concerned student and it truly broke my heart to read their comment. I don’t understand what happened either. I am jealous of the Fonda-Fultonville District whose board has made the decision to go above the tax cap and let their voters decide (4/19 Leader Herald article) and whose administrators, support staff and now their teachers (4/21 Gazette article) have forgone step and salary increases to bring back teachers and restore programs. I wish we had been afforded the same opportunity as a community.
It was our hope when moving back to Galway over 8 years ago that our son would have the same kind of experience growing up in Galway that we did and it is hard to stomach thinking that is not going to happen. BUT, I haven’t given up yet and I hope that others haven’t either!!
Sincerely,
Laura Sakala