Community Budget Forum II - Marcellus Central School District

Building Futures: Our School DistrictResidents Give Input on 2012-13 District BudgetThe Marcellus Central School District’s firstCommunity Budget Forum, held Jan. 26 in the highschool auditorium, drew some 250 residents andlasted more than two hours.Board of Education members presented what theyknow so far about the 2012-13 fiscal situation, and theninvited citizens to line up behind two microphones toweigh in on their budget priorities. Residents will haveanother chance to talk about the budget at a secondCommunity Budget Forum scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 15in the high school auditorium.“We’re facing some difficult realities this year,”Marcellus Board President David Kelly said.“Marcellus Central Schools confronts a budgetgap of $2.5 million for 2012-13,” board memberJohn Fuller said. Last year, Marcellus decreasedits budget through staff reductions and bydipping into the district’s fund balance. We lostgreat people and staff resources, Mr. Fuller said.To close the 2012-13 budget gap, in the face ofrising costs (health and pension benefits) anddwindling state aid, the district must now determinewhere best to trim. To kick-start the dialogue atthe Community Forum, board members distributeda list of 17 potential “budget optimization ideas,”including instructional program reductions, districtstaff cuts, outsourcing of services (transportation,food services, buildings and grounds), eliminationof kindergarten, reduced athletic funding, reducedextracurricular opportunties, etc.“We’d like to cut nothing, but we’re obviouslygoing to have to cut something,” board member Dr.David Locastro said.“Some tough choices need to be made,” agreedMarcellus Central School Districtguest moderator Matt Moses, a Marcellus parent andresident, who urged attendees to maintain decorumduring the event. “It all boils down to respect foreach other. This is Marcellus, not Washington.”For the next two hours, district residents, parents andstudents took turns asking questions, offering suggestionsand tendering passionate defenses of favorite programs.Suggestions included:• using fund balance to create staff retirement incentives;• forming a citizens’ exploratory committee with neighboringdistricts, to consider shared services;• refinancing district debt loans;• presenting a progression of budgets and cuts over the last10 to 15 years to give taxpayers some historical context(*See attached chart);• extending kindergarten to full-day to garner more state aid.(District Business Administrator Debra Eichholtz cautionedthe move would provide only a temporary spike in state aidnext year, followed by a reduction the following year and aleveling-off the year after, due to adjustments in pupil counts);• opening all union contracts; asking employees to shouldermore salary cuts;• eliminating duplicate district mailings to multiple-student homes;• using district amenities (auditoriums, stadium) to generate income;• forming a tax-exempt education foundation;• providing the specific fiscal impacts, i.e. dollar amounts,of the budget optimization ideas. (Those figures will beavailable at the next community budget forum, Feb. 15.)Marcellus Superintendent Dr. Craig J. Ticeencouraged forum attendees to reach out to statelawmakers and demand equitable school fundingand unfunded mandate relief.“Our elected officials are not our enemies, butthey do need to be our advocates,” Dr. Tice said.*The following chart shows the progression of Marcellus Central School District budgets and tax leviesfrom the 2001-2002 school year to the 2011-12 school year.RESERVESYEARTOTAL TOTAL TOTALBUDGETUSED TO% OF % OFOFNUMBER NUMBER NUMBER %INCREASE/BALANCEBUDGET BUDGETBUDGET % YES OF OF YES OF NO TAX LEVY DECREASE IN BUDGETBASED ON BASED ONVOTE VOTES VOTES VOTES VOTES INCREASE DOLLARSSHORTFALL TAX LEVY NYS AID2002 80%* 1160 924 236 6.90% +477,559 $250,000 49% 45%2003 80%* 1287 1030 249 7.87% +339,484 $418,611 51% 42%2004 77%* 1097 845 245 7.97% +1,318,185 $418,611 52% 42%2005 74%* 1545 1149 371 8.96% +1,464,726 $418,611 53% 41%2006 68%* 1116 755 347 6.96% +1,670,932 $350,000 53% 41%2007 61%* 1012 620 384 9.99% +3,907,949** $225,000 50% 46%2008 54% 1213 653 536 6.42% +1,021,866 0*** 51% 46%2009 61%* 1350 820 530 3.95% +567,172 0*** 52% 45%2010 57% 1408 801 607 2.49% +1,222,247 $864,559 52% 44%2011 64%* 1332 854 478 3.90% - 866,178 $1,463,812 55% 39%*Passed by a super majority**Capital improvement project expenditures this budget year***District attempted to replenish its reserves by withholding fund balance expendituresMarcellus Central Schools3

4CHORUSDRAMA & THEATREUnderstanding the PUZZLE of tBackground Information from the New York State School BoardsAssociation publication entitled The New 3 R’s: Reducing, Restructuringand Redesigning—School Districts in the Tax Levy Cap Era“Reducing, Restructuring, and Redesigning” have become the New 3 Rsas school leaders work to preserve educational programs under New YorkState’s new property tax levy cap.TRANSPORTATIONThe New 3 Rs include many of the familiar budget strategies that schoolleaders have adopted over the past three years—drawing on reserves,cutting personnel, negotiating salary freezes, and using attrition andretirements to reduce costs. They also represent a move beyond theseone– or two-year savings toward actions that will yield more long-termsustainable cost-savings. These actions include reducing non-mandatedprograms, restructuring school buildings and grade configurations,and redesigning programs by sharing teachers and administrators withother districts. One school administrator summarized the New 3Rs as“finding a different way to do business as we move forward.”The reasons for the paradigm shift are clear. School districts and thetax levy cap are on a collision course. Projected expenditures forhealth insurance, and pensions alone for all school districts wouldexceed the maximum allowable tax levy increase under the levy capby $103 million in 2012-13. In fact, an analysis of 121 school districtsover the past two years clearly demonstrated the following:Marcellus Central SchoolsVARSITYATHLETICS1. Nearly three-quarters of these districts would not have been able to raiseenough property tax revenues to make up for increased expenditures anddecreased state and federal revenues without going above the propertytax cap and requiring 60 percent voter approval. (For the current fiscal yearin the Marcellus CSD, even though the district cut 21.7 positions, reduced thebudget by $866,178, and used $1,463,812 in reserves to balance the budget,the school district STILL had to raise the local property tax levy 3.9% - anumber which would have exceeded the property tax cap if it was in existencefor the current year.)MODIFIEDATHLETICSCOMPTECHN

HIGH SCHOOL ELECTIVEShe New Property Tax Cap: Part 32. Nearly one-third (30 percent) of the districts facing budget gaps wouldnot have had enough undesignated reserve funds to cover the shortfall.Their only choices would have been to cut programs and staff or proposebudgets that exceeded the cap and therefore require a supermajority (60percent) voter approval. (For the Marcellus CSD, the Statewide School FinanceConsortium estimates that our school district has enough reserves to remainsolvent for 1.1 more years through the end of the 2012-13 school year.)BANDMarcellus Central Schools3. Districts that would not have had enough undesignated reserve funds tocover the shortfall tended to be districts with less property and incomewealth than average districts based on their combined wealth ratios. (Forthe Marcellus CSD, our Combined Wealth Ratio is 0.66 as compared to the NYSAverage of 1.00 for average wealth. Our district was among the hardest hit withthe Governor’s Gap Elimination Adjustments for the past three years with cuts of$1,063,909, $1,349,287, and $2,304,718 for this current fiscal year. In fact, the Boardof Education will have to account for the Governor’s proposed Gap EliminationAdjustment of $2,144,672 during next year’s budget planning.)4. Districts that had enough reserve funds to cover the shortfall would haveneeded to use more than one-third (38%) of their reserves. That wouldplace districts at risk in the event of an unexpected event—such as flooding,emergency damage to school facilities, slow tax collections or delayed NYS Aid.Without sufficient reserves to cover these scenarios, schools might resort toshort-term borrowing, thereby incurring interest and passing that cost along totaxpayers. (Because the Marcellus CSD used $1,463,812 in reserves for this current2011-12 year to balance the budget, the Board of Education must commit at leastthat much out of the remaining $2.5 million in total reserves for next year or riskhaving to make many more cuts to educational programming.)Although the new law has been referred to as a “2 percent tax cap,” itdoes not restrict any proposed tax levy increase to 2 percent. The law doeslimit how much the district can raise in property taxes and still have onlya simple majority approve the budget. If a district surpasses its tax levylimit, which varies from district to district based upon a complex, multi-stepformula, then 60 percent voter approval is required to pass the budget. Thelaw takes effect in 2012-13. If voters reject the budget twice, districts mustadopt a budget with the same tax levy as the year prior – a zero percent cap.EXTRACURRICULARPROGRAMSJUNIORVARSITYATHLETICSUTEROLOGYCLASS SIZES5

6Marcellus Central SchoolsBuilding Futures: Our School DistrictCNY Regional Scholastic Art AwardsMarcellus HighSchool studentsreceived a totalof 44 awards,including sevenprestigious GoldKeys, at the annualCentral New YorkRegional Scholastic Art Awards competition,held earlier this month at Onondaga CommunityCollege. Competition was stiff this year, thanks toan expansion of our region to 13 Central New Yorkcounties and 90 school districts, which meant moreentries. This year’s contest brought in more than4,500 submissions.Judging occurred Jan. 9 and 10, and anawards ceremony took place Jan. 18 in the OCCgymnasium. The work of Gold Key winners goeson to the national competition in March. Thenational competition is sponsored by ScholasticMagazine and the Alliance for Young Artists. Themajor sponsors of the regional competition arePaige Manahan – Scholastic Art &Writing Awards Silver Key WinnerDriver MiddleSchool student PaigeManahan won aSilver Key awardfor her drawing,“The Hip Bone,” inThe Scholastic Art& Writing Awardscontest, sponsoredby the Alliance forYoung Artists &Writers, a non-profitorganization thatidentifies teenagerswith exceptionalPaige Manahan’s “The Hip Bone”artistic and literarytalent and brings their work to a national stage.The Awards have an impressive legacy, datingback to 1923 and including such luminaries asAndy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote,Richard Avedon, Robert Redford and Joyce CarolOates.As a Silver Key winner, Paige will receivea certificate and a pin recognizing heraccomplishment from the Scholastic ArtsCompetition. WCNY will rebroadcast the ceremonyat 6 p.m. March 25.OCC and M&T Bank. These winners are students ofMarcellus Senior High School visual art teachersDonna Nicholas, Tara Charles and Tim Smarzo.STUDENT GRADE CATEGORY TITLE AWARDSBarnes, Anebey 11 Drawing Innocent Beast Gold KeyBarnes, Anebey 11 Mixed Media Sudden Lonliness HonorableFinnie, Samantha 11 Photography Autumn Destruction Gold KeyFinnie, Samantha 11 Photography Latched to What? HonorableFinnie, Samantha 11 Photography Color Keeps You Alive HonorableHogan, Michael 11 Photography Tunnel Vision HonorableNolan, Rachael 11 Photography Rocking Chair Silver KeyNolan, Rachael 11 Photography Porch HonorableSheridan, Alexandra 10 Photography My Mother’s Hands Silver KeySlade, Kathleen 11 Photography Sleeping Beauty HonorableBittenham, Leda 12 Painting A Little Bit More Gold KeyBittenham, Leda 12 Painting Urban Contemplation Gold KeyBittenham, Leda 12 Painting Mother Silver KeyBittenham, Leda 12 Art Portfolio Silver KeyBrown, Michelle 10 Photography Monkee Thingee Monkee Doo HonorableBrown, Michelle 10 Photography Portal to Wonderland HonorableCanne, Gail 12 Photography Circle of Life Silver KeyCanne, Gail 12 Photography Day on the Lake HonorableCanne, Gail 12 Photography Looking on the Bright Side Gold KeyCarey, Shane 12 Photography Cry Luminaries Seven HonorableCarey, Shane 12 Art Portfolio Silver KeyColle, Megan 12 Photography Perfect Silence HonorableColle, Megan 12 Photography Found Silver KeyLong, Ryan 12 Drawing Unbound HonorableLong, Ryan 12 Drawing Wilted HonorableLong, Ryan 12 Art Portfolio HonorableMarra, Rachel 12 Photography Young Girl Exploreing HonorableMarra, Rachel 12 Photography Portfolio HonorableNolan, Grace 10 Photography Frame the Kisses Gold KeySheridan, Alexandra 10 Drawing Julia Silver KeySheridan, Alexandra 10 Drawing We Found a Boy Honorable MentionSlade, Kathleen 11 Photography Trapped Honorable MentionSlade, Kathleen 11 Photography Steel Blue Stare Honorable MentionVensel, Baillie 12 Photography Sage Honorable MentionVensel, Baillie 12 Photography Portfolio Honorable MentionBird, Alexandra 11 Painting Compliments to You Honorable MentionCox, Haley 11 Design Just Baked Greetings Honorable MentionDailey, Laura 10 Mixed Medias Little Girl on a Bean Bag Honorable MentionRix, Abbie 9 Design Rammstein Album Covers Silver KeyTwombly, Shannon 10 Design An Endless Summer Silver KeyLeda Bittenham’s “Urban Contemplation” which won a Gold KeyDriver Middle School seventh graders create “dessert” art.

Building Futures: Our School DistrictMarcellus Boys’ Varsity Basketball Team2012 Marcellus SchoolsMusic NewsUnder the directionof Susan Stukus andaccompanied byAnoush MinasianSantangelo, the fourthgradechorus and fifthandsixth-grade choruspresented a winterconcert Jan. 25 inGroeling Auditoriumin Marcellus Senior High School. Fourth-gradersdelighted the audience with “Song of Peace,”“Sing with Joy” and “The Drunken Sailor.” Fifthandsixth-graders offered “Sleigh Song,” “PieJesu” and “Ode to Peace” as their selections.The evening concluded with the combined choirssinging the round, “Music Alone Shall Live.”The Marcellus High School music departmenton Jan. 21 presented “A Very Special PopsConcert” in Groeling Auditorium, featuringperformances by all the school’s major performinggroups, including select soloists and ensembles.Senior Grace Carlic served as mistress ofceremonies for the evening. The following soloistscontributed with their respective talents andabilities: Stu Synakowski, Kevin Pierce, AdinaMartin, Joe Isgar, Roxie Novak, Kelsey Nowak,Mary Morocco, Noelle Cotter, Michelle Rice,Michael Abbott, Brian Tanguay, Beth Abbott,Sean King, Angela Pugliese, Gail Canne, TabbyMcBride, Geoff Golick, Holly Grosholz, CarleyPolge and Mike Clark.Marcellus BasketballThe boys’ junior varsity and varsity teams won theMarcellus Christmas Tournament held Dec. 27 and28. The JV team defeated Clinton 62-31, and thenbattled long-time rival Skaneateles for the crown,winning 53-43. The varsity team beat Clinton 59-57,and then had their best performance of the yearin defeating Holland Patent 60-55. In both games,there were five players at or near double figuresin scoring. The boys’ varsity team also received aplaque from the More than a Game Foundation forraising $840 for Golisano Children’s Hospital.The girls’ varsity basketball team has won fourstraight games—and six of the last seven—and wonthe Skaneateles tournament over the holiday break.The winning streak includes victories over BishopGrimes, which was ranked 14th in the state at thetime, and Jordan-Elbridge. Their current record is6-8, and they need two more victories to qualify forsectional playoffs.The Bearcats Hockey TeamThe state-ranked Solvay “Bearcats” hockey teamis powered by players from Marcellus. The “BearcatsHockey Team” adjusted quickly to playing in thetoughest Division 1 West League, and their newhome rink at the Allyn Arena in the SkaneatelesCommunity Center. The record at home is anastounding 7-1, losing only to No. 1 West Genesee(6-3) back in December. They head into the playoffsin the driver’s seat. The overall record is 11-5,having beaten some state-ranked teams this year,including Fayetteville-Manlius, Corcoran, Ithacaand Baldwinsville. They are ranked as high as ninthin New York state and currently tied for secondplace with Baldwinsville. This is a great season sofar, with many highlights and a lot of hockey left tobe played. The team is powered by three talentedseniors and one junior from Marcellus: goal-tenderRyan Bonk, defenseman Kyle McVey, forward DavidLilly and junior forward Kasey McHale.Scholar AthletesIn order to receive a Scholar Athlete TeamAward, the varsity team must have an averagegrade point average above 90 percent. Any memberof the scholar athlete team who has a grade pointaverage above 90 percent is considered a studentscholar. The following teams achieved this honor:Girls’ Basketball Team - 7 girls are Scholar AthletesBoys’ Indoor Track - 16 boys are Scholar AthletesGirls’ Indoor Track - ALL 25 girls are Scholar AthletesMarcellus Central Schools7

“Building Futures”MarcellusCENTRAL SCHOOLSReed ParkwayMarcellus, New York 13108315-673-6000Non-ProfitU.S. PostagePAIDMarcellus, NYPermit No. 1 8Visit us on the web at marcellusschools.orgYou’re Invited!!Community Budget Forum II(formerly called World Café)Wednesday, February 15, 20127:00 p.m.High School AuditoriumDATESto rememberFebruary 151620-24March 56789 & 101214151620212227293031April 234569-13Community Budget Forum II, Groeling Auditorium, 7 p.m.SHS Site-based Team Meeting, 3 p.m.Winter RecessKCH PTO Meeting, 7 p.m.Board of Education Meeting, SHS Learning Commons, 7 p.m.KCH Open Library NightKCH Site-based Team Meeting, 5 p.m.; Spring Concert 1st Year Band, DMS Auditorium, 7 p.m.All School Show, Groeling Auditorium, 7 p.m.Marcellus Sports Booster Club Meeting, SHS Learning Commons, 7 p.m.MAC Meeting, DMS Library, 7 p.m.SHS Site-based Team Meeting, 3 p.m.; DMS Talent Show, 7 p.m.Staff Development Day – No StudentsBoard of Education Meeting, Groeling Auditorium, 7 p.m.KCH Town Meeting, KCH Library, at 7 p.m.Sixth-Grade Parent Information Night, 6:15 p.m., DMS Grade 4-6 Open House, at 7 p.m.DMS Site-based Team Meeting, 3:30 p.m.SHS Town Meeting, SHS Cafeteria, 7 p.m.; Kindergarten Registration at KCHJazz Cabaret Concert, SHS & DMS Bands, DMS Cafeteria, 7 p.m.; Kindergarten Registration at KCHKCH Annual Discover Your Talent DayDMS Town Meeting, DMS Cafeteria, 7 p.m.; DMS PTA Meeting, 6 p.m.Board of Education Meeting, Groeling Auditorium, at 7 p.m.Pre-First Parent Information Night, 6 p.m.; Kindergarten Parent Orientation, 7 p.m.Third Quarter Marking Period EndsGood Friday, No SchoolSpring Recess