Today's Ithaca Journal has stories on budgeting at both the Dryden Central School District and the Ithaca City School District. As noted yesterday, the Dryden district's budget looks especially bleak:
"Last year when we said we'd keep it to 10 percent [tax levy increase], it seemed possible. This year the effect of the 10 percent, I think, will ruin our schools," said Donna Mott, vice president of the board.
The Journal details the cuts involved:
The proposed cuts included 8.5 faculty positions, 5.5 support staff positions, $55,100 from athletic programs, $92,000 from co-curricular activities such as bands, plays and clubs, $16,399 from the computer tech department, the $15,425 travel and conferences budget, $4,980 from field trip transportation, $25,000 from transportation by no longer offering bus service to 6- to 12-graders who live within 1.5 miles of the school, and $2,653 from supplies, which is equivalent to 1 percent of supplies districtwide.
The board asked the adminstration to come up with budgets reflecting a 15% tax levy increase and also a contingency budget with an increase of 3.61% - which would be used if voters didn't approve the budget.
The Ithaca district will be having a meeting about the budget today, though it doesn't sound like anyone is looking forward to it.
The Journal also has a lot of material on Tompkins County's affordable housing issues today, including information on possible federal cuts to housing subsidies, comments from local residents on the issues involved, and the Town of Ithaca's unanimous approval of a zoning change for the Overlook at West Hill project, which includes 128 affordable units and 15 market-rate homes.
Posted by simonstl at March 16, 2004 08:57 AM