Scotia-Glenville outlines budget scenarios, proposes staff reductions to meet tax‑levy choices

Superintendent Susan Schwartz presented final budget options and asked the Scotia‑Glenville Central School District board to choose a spending limit that balances program needs, staffing and the legal tax‑levy cap.

The presentation by district staff emphasized that the district’s unassigned fund balance sits at roughly the state‑allowed 4% threshold and that recent projections show a year‑end surplus around $2.1 million. Drew, a district staff member, said the district had built scenarios that rely on a combination of fund balance, retirements left unfilled and program realignments to avoid a steeper tax increase. He said the plan the administration brought forward uses about $4.1 million of fund balance in lieu of raising taxes and would result in an estimated tax‑rate increase of about 1.63 percentage points under the district’s preferred scenario.

The board heard three basic options: (1) adopt a spending limit that stays within the tax‑levy limit (a 3.25% levy increase), (2) go out over the cap with restored priorities such as a school resource officer (SRO) and summer “learning leaps” (resulting in a levy and rate nearer 4.47% and a public‑facing tax‑rate near roughly 3.0% in the proponents’ framing), or (3) return to the original higher levy presented in February (around 6.75%). Drew cautioned that drawing down the unassigned fund balance below…