Sackets remains unsure of school budget woes

SACKETS HARBOR — Sackets Harbor Central School District students, teachers and residents attended Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting to get answers about what kinds of cuts the district is facing for the 2010-11 budget. But district officials still don't have the answers.

"I can't give you an exact number because each day we're working to find alternatives to cuts and the number keeps changing," Superintendent Frederick E. Hall Jr. said. "We're looking at everything with a dollar value, and we'll probably be working right up until the end on this."

Mr. Hall announced at a budget workshop last week that the district was facing staff and program cuts because of a roughly $526,000 difference between expected revenues and expenditures. The district is facing about a $338,000 state aid reduction, according to Gov. David A. Paterson's executive budget proposal. The other part of that difference includes increased expenditures for items such as salaries and rising health care costs.

District officials will try to strike a balance between making cuts and raising taxes to make up the budget shortfall. The goal is to keep the tax levy increase between 2 percent and 4 percent, Mr. Hall said.

While district officials still aren't sure where the budget can be cut, there is as yet no proposal to eliminate any full-time positions, Mr. Hall said.

Mr. Hall and Principal Jennifer L. Gaffney-Goodnough both will forgo pay raises for the 2010-11 school year, they said at the meeting.

About 30 students, teachers and taxpayers filled the school library for the meeting. A few people addressed the board. Some people urged board members not to increase taxes. Others asked them to cut extracurricular programs rather than academics.

"If academic programs are cut, we risk things that make us competitive for getting into college," 11th-grader Ian M. Kinnie said, addressing the board members. "We are your future. Educate us."

The board will hold budget meetings at 5:30 p.m. March 30 and April 6 at Sackets Harbor Central School. The board must adopt a budget at the April 6 meeting.