CARTHAGE — School Superintendent Carl H. Militello announced Wednesday evening that the special-education schedule and services will remain the same in the 2008-09 school year.
Because of budget cuts, Carthage Central School District officials were going to integrate special-education students into other classes and services to cut back on teachers. Now, Mr. Militello said, he will pull teachers from other areas of the district to fill holes in the schedule.
This is in sharp contrast to what Mr. Militello said eight hours earlier during a press conference to three reporters and Juston J. LaJoie, the parent of a special education student who circulated petitions calling for the reinstatement of funding for the teachers. Mr. Militello said the eight special education teacher cuts built into the 2008-09 budget would be reinstated.
"The eight teachers will be working in the district in special-ed areas," he said. "Those people have been reinstated. Those teachers are all going back to work, which creates a very tight budget for us next year."
Tuesday night, Mr. Militello told the Times that was not accurate because the eight cuts are not "actual cuts."
Five special-education teachers left the district this year for various reasons, he said. None of them were laid off. The other three positions were "hypothetical," meaning staff made proposals for the three additional positions. District officials decided not to fill the five vacated positions or the three proposed positions, which in budget talk, Mr. Militello said, is translated to "cuts."
"Those positions were all hypothetical in nature," he said. "We started with hypothetical cuts that we should have never done. We cut people who never actually worked for the district. We put in everybody's request and what they wanted into the budget and then when they looked at it, the board considers it a cut."
Mr. Militello met with Mr. LaJoie, who collected more than 1,000 signatures on his petition, on Tuesday to discuss special education schedules and to invite him to be a part of the new special-education advisory committee.
"I'm here on behalf of the people in the Carthage Central School District," Mr. LaJoie said at the press conference Wednesday. "Mr. Militello has made the right decision. The mistakes have been corrected. I spoke first for my son and then for the people, the teachers, who gave my son so much and those eight positions are going to be there."
Mr. Militello also said at the press conference that Suzanne Jackson, supervisor of the Central Regional Office of the state Education Department, was wrong this week when she said a special-education audit did not refer to the district's special-education students as being "over-serviced and over-classified," which Mr. Militello used as justification for making the cuts.
"There was no misinterpretation of the quality review," Mr. Militello said. "It clearly stated that we were over-servicing children and there should be an analysis of staff and cost, and again I'm calling for a retraction of those statements. This was an attack on my credibility and my integrity. My interpretation of that data, I feel, is correct."
He has asked a state Education Department official, James P. DeLorenzo, and Jack J. Boak, Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services superintendent, to look into the statements of Mrs. Jackson.
Meanwhile, Mr. Militello, school board President John E. Peck and district Business Manager Michael Powers met for the second time Tuesday night with six municipal leaders who challenged the school district's spending with a pointed letter April 14 asking for additional budget cuts.
West Carthage Mayor Scott M. Burto, Carthage Village President G. Wayne McIlroy, town of Champion Supervisor Terry L. Buckley, town of Wilna Councilman Michael F. Storms, town of Rutland Supervisor Gary D. Eddy and village of Black River Mayor Leland J. Carpenter, all of whom signed the letter, first met with the three school officials May 1, after which the tax levy increase was cut from 9.8 percent to 7.8 percent.
At the meeting Wednesday evening, school leaders proposed trimming an additional percentage point from the levy increase, which represents $83,000. The tax levy increase is now 6.8 percent.
One cleaning position, $11,000 in substitute teaching, $14,000 for textbooks and $23,000 for supplies have been eliminated.
"We feel at this time that it is unfortunate that additional cuts to the tax levy were not made, but the feeling of the school district is that it was the best they could do," said West Carthage Mayor Scott M. Burto in a prepared statement by the six municipal leaders. "We have asked that if the budget is turned down, the school board goes back to make additional cuts to allow for a second vote for residents' approval, instead of just taking the easy way out with a contingency budget."
The public hearing on the budget is at 7:30 p.m. May 13 in the high school cafeteria.
