MEET THE BAUMANN SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS
SCHOOLS
022803 Budget surplus, spending increase noted
BY
FRANK NARDOZZIThere was good news and bad news reported to the Bedford Central Board of Education on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
The good news was that Assistant Superintendent of Schools Mark Betz projects a budget surplus of about $800,000 in the current school year's budget. The bad news is that the school administration projects a budget spending increase of close to 13 percent for next year.
Finance Committee Chairman Mark Slivka reported that the Bedford Central Health Plan is close to $1 million over budget if costs experienced for the first seven months are annualized over the entire school year.
"The good news is that monthly expenses have stabilized," Mr. Slivka told the school board. "The bad news is that next year's costs are predicted to rise about 15 percent for prescriptions and 10 percent for hospitalization."
Other increased costs expected for next year include a 3.3 percent increase in teachers' salaries, unfunded state and federal mandates, BOCES administrative costs, special education costs, bond interest and
principal payments, an increase in the mandatory contribution to the state's employee retirement system, and reductions in state aid.
The finance committee recommended that the school administration be directed to present budget alternatives that would reduce the increase in spending to less than 10 percent, a directive that was adopted by the school board on Wednesday.
Mr. Slivka noted that each percentage point reduction in the budget amounted to about $800,000 in spending. This meant that the schools administration would be searching for ways to save at least $2.4 million.
"The committee is relatively confident that about $1.1 million can be saved by judiciously using the certiorari and employee benefit reserves, by reducing non-bond related capital expenditures and by deferring the purchase of new computers for a single year," Mr. Slivka stated.
"Secondly, if the district makes its first bond borrowing in July or August, rather than this June, only one interest/principal payment will come due in 2003-2004. As such, up to $750,000 can be deferred," he said.
The deferral, for the most part, would be made up in the final year of the bond's maturity, the finance chairman said.
"In order to meet our proposed spending target, the administration would still need to find an additional savings of between $600;000 and
The school administration is scheduled to make its budget presentation to the board at its meeting at the Fox Lane Middle School on Wednesday, March 5, the meeting to begin at 7 p.m.
In his report to the board, Mr. Slivka stated that spending under budget for this school year included transportation, interest expenses and teachers' salaries.
Transportation is under budget because the board budgeted more than a sufficient amount for the then unsettled transportation contract last spring.
Interest expenses are under budget because of plummeting interest rates. And teachers' salaries are under budget due to the retirement of higher paid teachers who were replaced by teachers who earn lower salaries.
If the $800,000 surplus holds up until the end of this school year, Mr. Slivka said the school board can decide whether to allocate part or all of it to the certiorari and/or employee benefit reserve or appropriate all of it to the 2003-04 schools budget.