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The Schenectady, Cohoes and Berlin school districts will vote on 2010-11 school budgets Tuesday.
     
     
The three districts' original budgets were defeated in the May 18 vote.

The districts have cut their proposed spending to lower the projected tax levy impacts.

Schenectady voters will consider a $161.3 million budget that carries a proposed 4 percent tax levy increase. The district Board of Education cut $325,300 from the defeated budget proposal.

Schenectady voters will go to one of 12 polling sites from noon to 9 p.m. Information about the polling locations is available at the district website, http://www.schenectady.k12.ny.us, or by call the district at 370-8100, ext. 40116.

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Schenectady budget is rejected again
Voters in Cohoes, Berlin approve second versions of spending plan

By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer
First published in print: Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Schenectady school district is still feeling the effects of voter discontent as its second budget failed Tuesday night.
     
As a result, district officials and board members will have to go to a contingency budget and excise another $571,880 out of the $161.3 million spending plan voters rejected by a vote of 954 to 856.
But residents in Cohoes and Berlin gave their second spending plans a thumbs-up Tuesday, as re-votes on their 2010-11 budgets passed. Berlin's $100,000 capital project proposition failed.

For Schenectady, two years' worth of controversies -- including the conviction of former facilities supervisor Steven Raucci and questions about the nature of Raucci's relationship with Superintendent Eric Ely -- are likely reflected in the vote totals.

"We just have to get people's faith back in the district and start moving forward, that's job one," said board member Gary Farkas, who is one of three board members who will return to lead the district July 1. During the May 18 vote, in which the district's first budget failed by 221 votes, a slate of four board candidates promising transparency were swept into office.

Farkas said the board will discuss at a meeting tonight if it will debate what further cuts to make, or if it will hand over the duties to Ely. Board members had difficulty arriving at cuts for the first two budgets, often arguing late into the night over individual line items. Ely had previously provided a list of possible cuts to the board some months ago that proposed items like Chinese language, piano, drumming and elementary language be on the chopping block. All of those programs were considered important enough by board members, however, to leave in both proposed budgets.

Blodgett Elementary School, a shuttered Catholic school that was opened two years ago to handle overflow from the closed International Charter School of Schenectady, will no doubt still be shut down as part of the contingency budget.

May's budget failure came with an unusually high turnout of more than 3,400 voters. But the lower voter turnout Tuesday of 1,800 residents did not help the budget.

The failed Schenectady budget reduced the tax levy impact from 6 percent to 4.............>>>>...............>>>>............Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=941290&category=SCHENECTADY#ixzz0r0nxu7XL

Quoted from benny salami

Vote today in Schenectady. They want you to forget so they can delay needed cuts for one year. Polls now open and no lines this time. Vote NO! on another 4% property tax increase.

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SCHENECTADY
Board splits on new budget cuts
Target: $256K; JROTC, security job may get ax
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    The city school budget rejection may kill JROTC, as well as the chief of security’s position, but the school board made no decisions Wednesday.
    Board members will meet again Tuesday to discuss precisely what will be cut to meet the state’s spending cap for contingency budgets. They have until June 30 to decide how to reduce the budget to $160.7 million.
    They must cut $571,000, but $315,000 has been decided for them. That’s because the state’s contingency rules prohibit most equipment spending.
    To cut the remaining $256,880, Superintendent Eric Ely recommended eliminating four items. They include JROTC — which costs $87,000 — and the chief of security position, which costs $59,000 with benefi ts.
    Board member Ron Lindsay objected to the JROTC cut because roughly 100 students would take the elective course next year. That’s a sizeable improvement over recent years.
“When you tell people to go out and market themselves and get the numbers up, you don’t chop the legs out from under them,” Lindsay said. “We asked people to do something, they did it.”
He suggested cutting some security offi cers and contractual services instead.
Board member Jeff Janiszewski fought that, saying, “I don’t think we have enough security … I would oppose cutting even one position, even half a position.”
He also opposed cutting the chief of security position. On that matter, board members Lisa Russo and Gary Farkas joined him, but that wasn’t enough to save it. In an informal vote, the other four board members said they would cut it. Security would be coordinated by an assistant superintendent and the building principals, as was done before the position was created a few years ago.
    Only three board members supported eliminating JROTC in that informal vote. They were Janiszewski, Andrew Chestnut and Diane Herrmann. .................>>>>....................>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00101&AppName=1