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Lansing School Board members gave an unofficial nod to a $28,047,000 budget that adds two AIS (Academic Intervention Services) teacher positions, increasing next school year's budget by an estimated $160,000 over an alternative budget that does not include the positions.  But School Administrator Mary June King told the Board Of Education Tuesday that the positions will have no impact on how much property owners are taxed this year.

"The property tax cap levy remains the same in both of these projections," King said.  "The levy can not be higher than that amount because we are right at the property tax cap.  The tax levy increase, therefore, is the same as the tax cap.  The tax rate will actually be a decrease.  Our appropriated fund balance is the one thing that changes from budget to budget.  I am projecting we will have to appropriate some fund balance just to make this budget work.  We'll have to appropriate a little more if you give us the opportunity to bring in those two extra faculty members."

King said the budget to budget impact between this year's budget and next year's would be a 1.14% decrease, assuming that the Board approves it and voters agree.  Superintendent Chris Pettograsso explained that a new Middle School position would increase an existing .5 position to a full time position.  She said the extra support will help students succeed when they otherwise are failing.

She said that data shows 12 students failed math in the Middle School.  She said that for the first time the district has an economically disadvantaged cohort.  She noted that statistics are skewed somewhat by students whose parents chose to opt them out of state testing.  She said only 40% to 50% of students receive a 'proficient' score on the state math exams.  School Board President Christine Iacobucci noted that in 2015-16 fewer students failed the math course than any year since 2012-13.  Pettograsso said that she also factors the size of the 8th grade class in any given year.  She said the goal is for zero students to fail math.

"Both positions are really reinstatements from past positions," she said.  "The PTSO has been exceptional at creating a math tutoring program throughout the day.  But it's also based on when the tutor is available and not necessarily when the students are available.  The other thing that this allows is to create a full time teacher who will be available in a support room all day."

The high school position would help with ELA (English Language Arts) concerns and 'credit recovery', which often takes the form of taking an online course to make up for failed classroom courses.  Pettograsso said that statistics show that students do better when they take these courses in school where a teacher is available than from home.

She told the Board that both the State Assembly and Senate have passed versions of the budget that entirely eliminate the GEA (Gap Elimination Adjustment).  That will mean an additional $300,000 in restored state aid for Lansing if the Governor agrees.  King said that most of that money will be squirreled away against continuing uncertainty about the fate of the Cayuga Power Plant, which accounts for about  $1.3 million of the school district budget.

"My recommendation would be that we adjust the appropriated fund balance because we still have the liability of the power plant down the road, and you still have significant capital improvements that need to be considered for this district," King said.  "If we went with the higher budget and we received all of the GEA I would probably be lowering the levy a little bit."

King said she is currently projecting the tax rate to go down from $21.50 to around $21.30 per thousand dollars of assessed property value.  She said that for a $200,000 home that is projected to come to a tax drop of $43.  The combined levy increase is just above a percentage point.  She said that state numbers don't always match the realities in the County, such as this year's reassessment.

"What I'm hearing is that people's assessments are going up dramatically.  I have to say to myself, why doesn't the State give me a dramatic increase in that assessed value so I can calculate the property tax cap accordingly?" she said.  "But they don't.  So we'll just have to see what happens.  I won't know what real numbers are for the assessed value of our community until July 1 when the Assessment office brings me those numbers.  Typically that's when I come back to you and say we don't need the tax rate to be so high.  We can lower it, because the numbers tell us we can lower it."

While the Board Of Education is not required to vote on a budget until their next meeting, King asked for a straw poll for guidance as to what budget to finalize for that vote.  Board members Glenn Swanson, Tony Lombardo, Julie Boles and Linda Boles said they had no problem with the higher budget.  Aziza benson was not present.  Iacobucci had a different view.

"I'm not so sure an AIS person is going to solve the problem based on what I've seen," she told King.  "But I'm in the minority, so it looks like you have it."

King said she would bring a final draft of the higher budget to the Board at its next meeting to approve for presentation to taxpayers, who will vote on whether or not to approve it in May.

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