SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake Central School District is considering a $38.1 million budget which would meet the tax cap, account for expected federal aid cuts and carry some layoffs amid enrollment decline.

The SLCSD school board will vote on whether to adopt this budget at its next meeting on April 9. If the budget is adopted, it will then go to the public for a vote on May 20.

The tentative budget anticipates spending exactly $38.1 million — $800,000, or 2.14%, more than last year.

To pay for this, the district plans to collect, or levy, $25,577,281 in taxes — $1,084,343 more than the current year, a 4.44% increase — but exactly at the tax cap. This cap limits the amount districts can raise the levy year-to-year, and SLCSD’s cap was set this year at 4.44%

The district is predicting $38.1 million in revenue, $800,000 more than last year.

The tax rate per $1,000 of assessed value will be different for each of the seven towns in the district, as each town has a different equalization rate. The district will calculate the exact tax rate for each town later.

SLCSD Superintendent Diane Fox said this year has been difficult to budget for because of the changes President Donald Trump’s administration is making at the federal Education Department, which make the future of several grant programs “clear as mud.” To read more about these changes and how the district is budgeting around them, go to https://tinyurl.com/433k23pu.

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Union concerned about staff reductions

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The budget includes plans to cut an unspecified number of staff positions, including teachers, next year.

Salaries for instructional and non-instructional staff at the district are projected to total $16,368,356 in the coming year. There is an expected $65,432 increase in instructional salaries next year, even with the planned cuts, because of the district is shifting several salaries from federal grants with murky futures into the general budget. There is also an expected $103,671 decrease in non-instructional salaries. Without staff reductions, these salaries would total $17,593,281. There are also several other benefit lines that are reduced by staff reductions.

Fox said the district has an idea of which specific positions will be reduced, but she does not want to say publicly until the district is able to meet with all the people whose positions may be cut first. She also did not want to reveal the number of positions slated to be reduced, since that number is not final yet — there’s still time for staff to announce retirements.

Fox said staff reductions will not result in programming reductions.

“Unfortunately, we have more staff than our programming requires at the moment,” she said.

Board Chair Mark Farmer said these are the decisions the board dislikes the most. Student enrollment numbers have been declining for years now.

Since staff are unionized, reductions are done by who has the least seniority.

Saranac Lake Teacher’s Association Vice President Joe Thill addressed the board at their meeting on Wednesday, saying his union members are “very concerned” by these planned cuts to teaching staff.

“Members are very anxious and losing sleep knowing that people will be losing their jobs,” he said.

Thill said in the past, the district has done a good job of eliminating positions through attrition when people retire and asked them to continue this. Though retirement numbers are low this year, he said that is an anomaly and there is an expected wave of retirement in the next 4 to 8 years — adding that the district will need experienced, dedicated teachers to take the reins when veteran staff retire en masse.

“Cut their jobs and they may leave to never return,” Thill said.

He said, over the past eight years, SLCSD teaching staff has been cut 7% by attrition, representing 75 jobs and maintaining a ratio of 15 teachers to every 100 students as enrollment has declined in the same time-span.

“Yet, it would appear the same rationale does not apply to administration,” he said, pointing out that administrative staffing has increased by 33% over the same eight years.

He said the optics look bad to the teachers in light of the pain of job cuts this budget currently carries. Thill suggested eliminating administration through attrition to save costs.

Fox said on Thursday that they’re required to have one administrator in each school — Petrova Middle and Elementary are considered two schools though they share a building — and a special education administrator, so there is a base of five administrators. The district added one administrator — a curriculum coordinator — around eight years ago after the middle school was ranked in the bottom 5% of the state in terms of grades 3-8 testing. Fox said the district is now out of that zone and in 2024 was in the top three out of 12 comparable districts.

Salaries and benefits make up 75% of the district budget. BOCES services make up 7.86%, debt makes up 5.4%, contractual payments including fuels make up 5.7% and the rest is spent on equipment, materials, software, textbooks and other expenses.

The district’s debt has gone up because they’ve been doing a lot of capital work, but Fox said it is still a small part of the budget.

Thill also asked the board to reconsider the budget decision to bolster the district’s reserve fund saying it is “already robust” — equating to 10% of the annual budget when the state recommends 4%. He asked why reserves are more important than teachers. He said teachers have been busy — adapting to the coronavirus pandemic, making up for the massive deficit it caused, digitizing their curriculum. There are many initiatives that improve education but require more work of teachers, he said.

Fox said on Thursday that the district is planning to bolster its reserves, but it uses substantially more money from its reserves to balance the budget every year.

She said the district needs large reserves for emergencies and to plan for the future. It costs money to borrow money and they need cash ready if a boiler breaks, if funding dries up or if there’s other emergencies.

“Four percent is not fiscally responsible,” Fox said.

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State aid

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The district is projecting getting just under $10 million in state aid this year, $120,000 more than last year. Fox said since SLCSD is a “hold harmless” district, which means it is ensured to get as much funding this year as it did last year. But the state says they receive more funds than they should — though district administrators disagree. SLCSD is wealthy in land, but not in family income, Fox said. So despite the fact that the state lists it as an “average-needs district,” its families are not. Also, student enrollment has been on the decline.

Last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul was threatening to eliminate the “save harmless” state aid, which would have impacted all local districts and was considered at the time to be guaranteed to happen this year. However, Hochul’s executive budget proposal offers a 2% increase in foundation aid for schools in save harmless, like SLCSD is. The proposed Assembly and Senate budgets call for around 3%, which would account for an additional $60,000, but Fox is not expecting that. The final state budget is due on April 1 and will likely include either the 2% or 3% increase.

“There was all sorts of discussion last year about actually removing some state aid,” Fox said. “So the fact that we’re on the plus side, even if it’s small, for us, we felt that was a win.”

She said increased state aid is important for the district’s finances. The cost of everything is more expensive for them in recent years and they buy in large quantities. The Petrova Elementary building goes through 400 gallons of fuel a day during the winter, Fox said.

The district’s health insurance costs are seeing a significant $686,000 increase. Fox said this is a 12% increase rather than the 3% or 5% it is usually, and that these higher rates are expected to continue. SLCSD is part of a consortium with FEH BOCES, sharing health care with rates based on usage. There were several large claims in the consortium in the last year, which is impacting rates for districts around the area who participate.

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Election

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There will also be two school board seats up for election on the ballot on May 20. The seats are for Chair Mark Farmer and member Zach Randolph’s positions. They both have the option of running again.

Packets on filing to run are available in the district clerk’s office. The deadline to file petitions with signatures is April 21 by 4 p.m.

District Clerk Gina Pollock said she wanted to make sure people register to vote. Last year amid the “hot topic” of the turf field vote, several people showed up to cast ballots, but couldn’t vote because they weren’t registered. To learn how to register to vote, contact your county board of elections in Essex, Franklin or Clinton county.

On May 20, voting for the election and budget vote will be held in the auditorium lobby of the High School in door number five from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.