ELLENVILLE – Everyone knew it was coming, but when Superintendant of Schools Lisa Wiles spoke at the last Board of Education Meeting, her news instantly shattered any holiday spirit lingering in the room: "The governor's proposal for state aid is in, and I have to tell you that it is bleak, but not as bleak as we were led to believe initially."

The figures presented at the meeting on December 17 are chilling on their own. A new line has been added to the state aid forms called "Deficit Reduction Aid." For the Ellenville School District, the figure given there is $879,526, which is the amount of school aid that the district has been asked to give back.

Wiles prefaced her remarks on that figure by pointing out that there was a $300,000 increase in transportation aid, as well as $60-70,000 more in BOCES aid. When put all together, the number is a less frightening $527,900. The total figure for school aid from the state for 2008/9 has been put at $16,512,015, while the 2009/10 aid estimate totals $15,984,115.

Cuts Around the Region Whereas Ellenville Central School District is seeing a decrease in funding of approximately 3.2%, other districts in the area are seeing bigger reductions. Ellenville's designation as a "District of Special Need" spared the district from harsher cuts. School 2008/09 2009/10 District Aid Decrease % Kingston $51,262,155 -5.31 Highland $10,768,854 -9.17 Rondout Valley $19,871,068 -7.25 Marlboro $8,486,992 -12.66 New Paltz $13,000,895 -11.66 Onteora $9,092,779 -6.23 Saugerties $18,734,059 -6.01 Wallkill $25,248,251 -6.22 Ellenville $16,512,015 -3.20 Pine Bush $48,649,888    -7.31 More information is available here (large PDF).

Despite the fact that Wiles tried to soften the numbers' blow, members of the school board were still uneasy with the news.

"We know we have contractual numbers that will increase this year no matter what. What happens when we put those numbers back into the budget?" asked Karen Osterhoudt, Vice President of the Board of Education.

Wiles admitted that, for contractual reasons, a number of budget items would increase over the next year, but that at this point she had no real idea of how much that would add to the shortfall.

Wiles recalled the previous figures that came from the governor's office which had mentioned a $640,000 midyear cut in aid.

"We were told to just double that first figure to get to the figure for the governor's preliminary figure. So that's what I mean about it not being quite as bad, since that would have meant almost $1.3 million in cuts. And instead we're looking at 'only' $879,526. Of course, that is still a huge amount, and it will have a major impact on our programs."

Wiles also pointed out that "this figure, which we usually get at the end of January, is also usually the most conservative figure. In the past we have normally gotten more money than was allocated by the governor in his preliminaries. This year, we have to hope that there will be less money cut from our budget in the later figures. She also said that what she fears most is if the legislature and governor get into gridlock on the subject, because then the school will have to use these figures as their accounting base. "We always use the governor's proposal as our budget base," she said.

"This year's budget…would go up a certain percentage because of contractual obligations, and that would be the expenditure side of things. And then you'd look at the revenue side and you'd say 'if you increase your tax levy 4 percent' — because that's the one area you can always look at. The other area's your state aid, and if at the very best it stayed flat this year, you might be able to squeak by with just a point or so more on tax. But with that state aid decreasing then you have to look at raising other sources of revenue, which is very difficult, or you have to look at reducing expenditures, and that's what we're doing. We're watching all of our expenditures now, our budget is frozen and we're looking at everything we spend on a case by case basis."

And as if all that wasn't enough, Wiles pointed out that the decline in interest rates has meant that the district is getting less return on its investments. What is clear is that in the next few months there is going to be a struggle within the district over who is going to take the hit: the long-suffering taxpayers, or Ellenville's teachers and administrative staff, who may suffer major layoffs.

A lot will depend on the negotiations in Albany over the next few months. Wiles said, "We knew this was going to be a very difficult budget season and this is just confirming it."

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