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SCHENECTADY
District’s budget gap $9.6M
Superintendent: Residents can’t bear a tax increase
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    The Schenectady school district is $9.6 million short in next year’s budget, but Superintendent John Yagielski told the school board not to raise taxes.
    “You can’t do that,” he said after explaining how next year’s budget is in such dire shape.
    He expects a $4.4 million shortfall in state revenue and $5.3 million less to be used in savings because the district used most of its savings last year. The district will also collect $1.3 million less in taxes, even if the tax rate remains the same. That’s because tax exemptions and court tax cases have reduced the tax base since last year.
    There was a glimmer of good news: Yagielski found $1.5 million in unneeded expenses, which he eliminated for next year’s budget.
    He compared actual spending to budget items and discovered some items had been overfunded.
    “We [have produced] a more precise budget and squeezed out things that had been carried forward,” he said.
    The district also managed to spend less this year, saving about $3 million, which will be put into next year’s budget.
    But cutting $1.5 million and saving $3 million had very little impact on a budget that was so badly overdrawn.
    “I’m actually proud we have a budget smaller than last year, but guess what? We cannot afford it,” Yagielski said.
    The district simply must rein in spending “to better match available resources,” he said, stressing again that the city’s taxpayers won’t support more taxes.
    “There’s no other place to pass it on,” he said of the $9.6 million budget deficit. “We’re not facing a one-year problem. We’re facing a very serious structural problem. We must reduce our overall costs.” ......................>>>>.......................>>>>..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01301&AppName=1

Benny Salami warned everyone last year that this would happen.  

Maybe it is time for him to get on the School Board he has a good understanding of things.  He has intelligence the board is questionable

Thanks Cel but I have bigger fish to fry. The $10 MILLION school budget hole has been obvious for months. Too much time has been wasted. Albany is laying off 120 teachers-meanwhile we are again reviewing numbers. With all the tax increases-the schools are getting $1.3 MILLION less. Abandoned homes, assessment battles are taking a toll.

     The new Super has made positive changes but has to reorganize the grade schools to slash busing. Every educational expert agrees that neighborhood schools, with kids walking, is the best approach. End magnets, slash busing {$5 MILLION saved}, freeze capital projects and eliminate more non teaching bureaucrats. Does the high school really need Deans?

Continued renaissance in progress.

Benny Salami does need to pass the salt to Combo's ---get bigger fish there Benny.

Really? The school district, and all other districts in NYS, need to make cuts. For too long, the teachers union has had too many perks and not enough to show for it. Schenectady teachers making a 4% pay raise EVERY year?!? Maybe the raises should stop because half the students can't even graduate from the high school.

Make a raise based on performance...not just because the union mandates it. The cuts need to start and the unions better get on board. Union-free school districts may be in the near future.

it's not the perks, it's what the 'vote purchasers' did....

OK, check these words from the story.

DV, WE TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   You DO see these word??????   You DO see that the tax exemptions (those handouts given by YOUR CRONY SOCIALISTS to the downtown millionaires)....  telll us DV, please provide an answer to what is the result of all spending of tax dollars on downtown.  

Tell us DV, what is the result of the tax exemptions given to the millionaires downtown????????   HUH??????    HUH?????????    HUH???????

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The district will also collect $1.3 million less in taxes, even if the tax rate remains the same. That’s because tax exemptions ........have reduced the tax base since last year.

DV, this is what YOU call a renaissance??????   THis is what YOU claim is good for the city????????    

Of course, as usual, DV will not answer the question, he'll respond about the nettering whatever, because he just cannot admit that the money spent on downtown is NOT doing ANYTHING GOOD for the city!!!!!!!!!!  

So, DV, would you care to provide an explanation of how tax exemptions for millionaires downtown has increased the tax base.  Alll this spending on downtown was supposed to improve the city, and it was supposed to increase the tax base.     So, provide the explanation of HOW the exemptions have increased the tax base for the financially struggling homeonwers.  Tell us DV.  

WHERE IS THE CAFR????????????????????????????????????????????

DV is still speechless.   Too chicken to respond DV?    

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"...The Schenectady school district......short in next year’s budget.Superintendent John Yagielski told the school board not to raise taxes......
    
    He expects .....  district will also collect $1.3 million less in taxes, even if the tax rate remains the same. That’s because tax exemptions ... have reduced the tax base since last year.

   And DV.....STILL SPEECHLESS???????????????????????????????      

DV must be either using the "not posting during lent" reason again, or, well, it's only 1:30 p.m., he must be trying to get some beauty sleep.

Interesting that the school district realizes the problems with the ever decreasing tax-base, yet the City is still clinging to their renaissance delusions.

MC1 is right, the facts are damning and the silence is a telling sign that the rats are jumping ship.

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SCHENECTADY
Teachers fight remedial program cuts
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Schenectady’s elementary school teachers arrived en masse at Wednesday’s school board meeting, armed with charts, research papers and signs decrying the proposal to cut most remedial math and reading instructors.
    The cut would eliminate 16 jobs and save $1.5 million. The plan would include having a remedial teaching specialist coach classroom teachers to improve their lessons so that fewer students would need extra help. Only a couple of specialists would be left in each school for those students.
    But given the district’s poor scores in reading, teachers said Schenectady can’t afford to gut the new reading program that began just two years ago.
    And after three teachers presented the remedial program’s benefits, Superintendent John Yagielski said he would consider tweaking his plan.
    “Not ready to go completely the other way,” he said. “But given the thoughtful way things were presented, I feel compelled to refl ect on what I heard.”
    He said later that he may be willing to implement the changes more slowly but insisted that the district must stop taking students out of the classroom for remedial lessons.
    “Reading instruction needs to occur in the regular classroom,” he said.
    Teachers spent most of their time trying to convince him that he shouldn’t change a program that’s working.
    “The district is fi nally, fi nally offering a high-quality reading program,” said reading teacher Linda Neeb.
    “We have data,” she said, describing second-graders who were eight levels behind in reading at the beginning of the year. Now they’re all reading at the level expected for the end of second grade.
    “And it’s only March!” she said.
    She said the new program only works if children are taken out of the classroom, to remove distractions, and taught by specially trained teachers.
    “We do expect to see substantial improvements in [state reading tests] very, very soon, as soon as these kids get into third grade,” she said. The state begins testing in third grade. ....................>>>>.....................>>>>..................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01101&AppName=1

If the teachers want these remedial instructors, ask the teachers to give back their annual 4% raises..........didn't think so.  

I'm sure that there are positions at 'the top' that can be shed off!! I think everyone has a friend or relative  that has a 'created' position!