Penn Yan school reviews budget increase

PENN YAN—Penn Yan Superintendent David Hamilton gave a presentation on the preliminary budget situation to the school board Wednesday, Jan. 29. He said if current state aid levels and expenses were left unchanged, the school budget for the 2014-15 school year would increase by $1,958,400. Hamilton said this would result in a tax levy increase of 11.52 percent.
Hamilton said the school has not yet prepared a draft budget, and that this is just a preliminary look to see what the situation would be like if expenses were rolled over from this year to next with no additional changes. He said the district is gathering input from community members on what they would like to see in the budget while also explaining the budget process.
“Budgets are about choices and budgets are also about priorities,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said student success, opportunity and character are the three priorities and goals the district will be focusing on in the budget. He also said another district goal is to be a regional leader. Hamilton said they want to create a budget that is sustainable for more than three years, which means the district has to make decisions they can sustain moving forward.
Hamilton outlined some of the challenges the district is facing in this year’s budget. He said health care increases and retirement increases already amount to $700,000 total going into next year’s budget.
“We already start $700,000 in the hole before we even start talking about the programs,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said the district is still in the process of gathering final requests from students and staff members, while also seeking input from the community. He said when it comes to building the budget, they try to give staff a certain amount of freedom in what they get out of their budget.
“We try as much as possible trying to give people autonomy in the budget decisions they make,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said this is merely an early look at the budget, and that they plan to have a draft budget complete for their next regular meeting Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m.