REGIONAL – No one understands the dire situation local school districts are facing better than veteran superintendent Lisa Wiles. Wiles has been at the helm of Ellenville Central School District — a high-needs district — for over eighteen years, and not once, she says, has she encountered a problem of this year's magnitude.

"There's an agenda, but I don't know what it is; I just don't get it," Wiles said.

She, like other area superintendents, is baffled by the state — and Governor Andrew Cuomo in particular — and the lack of information forthcoming regarding state aid amounts needed for local school districts to create their own budgets on. Which directly affect local taxes.

Cuomo is withholding what the state calls its annual aid runs in hopes that fellow legislators will approve his education reforms. If those reforms are approved, it's been suggested that school districts will receive a significant increase in state aid; if not, a much lower increase.

This Friday, March 6, school administrators and board members from all eight Ulster County school districts will be on hand to discuss the "underfunding" of school districts and how a slew of state cuts over recent years, and the new developments out of Albany, have affected their individual districts and communities. At the forum, to be held at the Jane Bullowa Conference Center at Ulster BOCES in New Paltz from 6 to 7:30 p.m., Ulster BOCES district superintendent Dr. Charles Khoury will lead discussion with a presentation on the impact of underfunded schools and an explanation of the Gap Elimination Adjustment, which school administrators, various elected officials, and many in the general public are asking to be dismissed.

Next Wednesday, March 11, educators and school boards will descend on Albany and the State Capital for another rally and lobbying effort tied to the current situation.

Around the Journal readership area, Rondout Valley superintendent Rosario Agostaro sent out a notice to his colleagues and the region's press, as well as his own school community, noting how, "the 'truth' about the lack of funding equity" needed to be made public.

"We will provide you with facts and data which will paint a true picture of the state of Ulster County," he wrote. "We desperately need your help to spread the word and dispel the myths."

Even in the huge Pine Bush District that straddles Ulster, Sullivan and Orange counties, petitions were being rounded up regarding aid figures, alongside a more district-specific push for a new ward voting mechanism for its board elections.

In Ellenville, meanwhile, Wiles recently confirmed rumors that there is the potential for cuts both in faculty and programs going into the 2015-2016 school year. She said this week that there are a lot of factors leading to this drastic proposal, from the property tax cap reducing the district's ability to raise funds, to the on-going GAP Elimination Adjustment, and the unavailability of the state aid figures.

As of June 2014, Ellenville was facing a $2 million operating deficit, which without a better aid package could grow to $3.5 million by this June.

The 2015-2016 proposed draft budget stands at $50,248,908, an increase of $1,150,350 from last year's approved budget of $49,098,553 due to new mandates, health insurance increases and contracted salary hikes, amongst other items. Wiles explained that even if state aid runs are announced prior to April, when district budgets are due, the status quo as based on years of diminishing state aid to local school districts could still make the new cuts, augmenting similar moves over recent years, unavoidable.

More on this unfolding drama next week...