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Ogdensburg begins early budget planning

Posted 2/10/18

By THOMAS LUCKIE OGDENSBURG -- Preliminary discussion and review for the Ogdensburg City School District’s 2018-19 school year budget plan officially began at Monday’s Board of Education meeting. …

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Ogdensburg begins early budget planning

Posted

By THOMAS LUCKIE

OGDENSBURG -- Preliminary discussion and review for the Ogdensburg City School District’s 2018-19 school year budget plan officially began at Monday’s Board of Education meeting.

The board and administration quickly reviewed and discussed 2018-18 budget formulations relative to purchasing materials, supplies and equipment for the Athletic Department, Ogdensburg Free Academy and the district’s Buildings & Grounds Department.

Board member Michael Tooley, who advocated for the district fully funding the purchase of future athletic uniforms at the last meeting, confirmed with Athletic Director Anthony Bjork that the budget formulation positions the district to begin year one of a fully funded replacement schedule.

Tooley cited concerns over the amount of fundraising taken on by district student athletes and the age of uniforms for certain sports as reasons for the district to consider fully funding athletic uniforms at the prior meeting.

Currently, the district funds half of the costs of athletic uniforms, while fundraising generally accounts for the other half of the costs.

The materials, supplies and equipment budget for grades seven and eight at Ogdensburg Free Academy currently sees no increase over the 2016-17 budget, while the high school level sees a $3,000 or 2.7 percent decrease due to the purchase of art room desks and chairs that was fulfilled in 2016-17.

The per pupil cost for materials, supplies and equipment is expected to be $172.66 at the middle school level and $235.04 at the high school level.

While the budget information reviewed on Monday contained no drastic increases, Superintendent Timothy Vernsey prepared the board and administration for a potentially tough budget season.

“I sense that we will have more difficult decisions to make than we have the past few years,” Vernsey said.

While preparing for the 2017-18 school year budget last winter and spring, the district initially faced a $1.7 million budget problem, the majority of which was caused by the rising costs of health insurance.

The budget for the current school year was ultimately passed by district voters last May and represented an increase of $2.7 million or a 6.31 percent increase over the 2016-17 budget.

Vernsey also stated that he expects the budget discussion to ramp up starting at the next regular Board of Education meeting on Monday, Feb. 26.

“We are working on the overall budget, taking a look at things, we’ll probably have more information for you at the next meeting. At this point in time, we still have to wait for our elected officials to find out what’s going on in Albany,” Vernsey said.

“I know the board has given us direction to not affect student programs, we obviously try to do that,” he added.

The consensus of the board during budget discussions last spring was that proposed cuts to student programs would not be approved.

“We’ll have more information generally of the overall budget picture by the next meeting. Hopefully we will have some contact with [Assemblywoman] Addie Jenne and [State Sen.] Patty Ritchie,” Vernsey said