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Lansing School District voters will be asked to approve three propositions May 17th, and to vote for three school board positions.  About 20 people came to a budget hearing Monday to learn the details from Superintendent Chris Pettograsso and Business Administrator Mary June King.

Before you vote, here are some of the key points they made in a nutshell.

Proposition 1: "That the Board of Education of Lansing Central School District be, and hereby is, authorized to expend the sums set forth of $28,047,000 and to levy the necessary tax therefore."  The budget is actually lower than last year's budget by 1.14%.  But the levy (the part we pay in property taxes) is higher, and nobody really knows how the property assessments, which were raised this year) will affect the actual amount you will pay (we'll know that later this summer when the tax bills are mailed).

Should you approve it?

That is up to you, of course.  This is the first time in some time that the actual budget has been reduced, no mean feat in the wake of rising cost of health insurance and other benefits.  Additionally the school board approved the addition of two new teacher positions to help support middle and high schoolers in testing and making up class work.

If the budget is not passed the state restricts spending, and the tax levy cannot be increased by any amount. Additionally the community would be barred from using school facilities, which would be a hardship on the Town recreation program.

The details were mailed in a school bulletin that everyone should have received by now.  Even more details are on the school Web site (click the Board of Education link, and then choose the Budget link for downloadable documents).


Just so you know, we don't get to vote on the tax levy or the tax rate.  We just get to approve the budget, which is slightly over $28 million if we approve it.  The levy (the part property taxpayers pay) is estimated at $17,162,068 for 2016-17.

Proposition 2: "Shall the Board of Education of Lansing Central School District be authorized to purchase and finance the following with the total cost not exceeding $300,000?  2 – 70 passenger school bus and 2 – 7-9 passenger vans"

We see this every year because the District has a revolving plan to replace a few busses each year.  As the debt for an old bus is paid off it is then assigned for new busses.  So the district isn't really spending a lot more each year -- it is just replacing busses before they become old and dangerous.

"We rely on the head mechanic and the Transportation Director do do an analysis of the condition of the fleet," said King.  "What we have found over the last several years is that it's more body work that is causing us to have to turn the fleet over."

The district receives state aid which pays for a significant percentage of the cost of the busses.

Proposition 3: "Shall the Board of Education be authorized to establish a capital reserve fund to be used to finance whole or in part the cost of construction not to exceed $7,000,000?"

Every other year the district has a capital project to take care of a percentage of the repairs and renovations that are identified on Building Condition Surveys (BCS), mandated by the state to be conducted every five years.  The most recent BCS has identified about $30 million of work that needs to be done.  The work is split into smaller projects that have typically been between about $2 and $4 million a pop.  A big recent one was the replacement of three large septic systems for the three main school buildings on the Ridge Road campus.

The School Board has a smaller capital reserve fund that has about $600,000 in it.  The Board is not asking for money to put into the new reserve.  It is just asking for permission to create the reserve itself.  The actual cash comes a little at a time, as the School District finds it has some spare cash.

State aid for Lansing only covers about 65% of capital projects, and add another 40% to 45% for what King calls 'soft costs' such as architects, construction management, attorneys, financial advisors and a clerk of the works.

Each year the District looks at money that was budgeted but not spent, if any.  One of the things it can do with this money is to fund reserves.  Sometimes some of the money is used to lower the tax levy.  So it is money that has been collected, but for whatever reason wasn't needed during the budget year.

Bottom line: creating the reserve costs us nothing except for the paperwork needed to create it and report on it to the State.  It is a fiscally prudent thing to do.  Funding it is a separate matter.  By doing it this way the District has conducted capital projects for at least the last decade that had 'no additional tax impact' on property taxpayers.  Yes, we do pay, but a little at a time, up front, so we don't have to pay more when the time comes to call the contractor.

Lansing is Rich :
Lansing taxpayers' portion of paying for schools is high, because the community is rated as relatively wealthy when the state calculates how much aid Lansing will get.  King notes that the wealth ratio assigned to Lansing means the District only gets about 35% state aid, with about 65% (or 40/60 - in that range) or so paid by taxpayers.  She says Trumansburg is a similar sized school district but the aid to taxes ration is flipped with about 65% in aid and 35% in taxes.  Lansing property taxpayers pay significantly more for school expenses.

"That's true in most of the other school districts," King said.  "Most of the other districts have a higher poveryty rate and they bring in greater state aid dollars."

The Power Plant:
Now that the State said ratepayers will not fund a repowering of the Cayuga Power Plant, nobody really knows the fate of the plant, and at the moment the owners aren't saying.  What we do know is that the value of the plant has plummeted by $100 million in the past half dozen years.  When the plant pays less, property taxpayers have to make up the difference.  School officials say this has cost taxpayers an additional $2 million since the value of the plant began decreasing.  Every time the plant loses $5 million in value it costs property taxpayers about $100,000.

If the plant closes entirely the school will lose $1.2 million annually.  At that stage the School Board will have to decide whether to raise taxes significantly or cut programs.  To mitigate that school officials are working with our state representatives to get legislation that would allow Lansing to create a tax mitigation reserve that would be funded in much the same way the new capital reserve will be funded.

Gap Elimination Adjustment:
The state has been withholding significant aid to school districts.  Originally this was done to help recover from a massive state budget deficit, but, as with many government programs, it took years to get rid of the GEA.  Over seven years the Lansing Central School District has been stiffed by more than $6.2 million in withheld aid.  Allegedly the GEA is being killed in the coming school year, but the schools will not retrieve money lost in past years.

So even though the district is receiving more aid next year than anyone thought it would get, school officials are not reducing the levy.  They are afraid the power plant will close, so they are keeping the money now to be able to avoid a major tax rise if the power plant closes.

School Performance:
You always hear how great Lansing schools are.  Do you want the hard numbers?  The New York State Education Department annually posts 'report cards' on each district.  Click here to see Lansing's report card.

School Enrollment
Enrollment is holding fairly steady.  There was a big jump in the elementary school 2011 from 402 to 450.  Since then it's been holding steady around 450 students.  This year there were 451.  The 2011-12 graduating class was 265 students.  High school enrollment dipped after that, slowly rising until this year when it diped slightly again (by 11 students).  But overall enrollment has stayed fairly steady for the last five years with a low of 1,132 in 2011-12 and a high of 1,151 the next school year. This year's district enrollment is 1146.

Attendance
Lansing students go to school.  Over the past four years attendance statistics show a high attendance rate.

"We have 96% pretty much every year," said Lansing School Superintendant Chris Pettograsso.  "We do get into details of this and we have found we suffer more of the same students being chronically absent.  That is something New York State is starting to notice.  We're having to look at that data more closely so we can really support those families."

Pettograsso says support teams in each of the three schools work with those families.

"Sometimes even I have been called in the morning to get students here," she said.  "And it does work.  It's nice to be our size because we are able to do that."

Graduation Rate
Lansing has an above average graduation rate that outperforms similar schools and the state average.  

"Its something to really be proud of," Pettograsso said.  "Our graduation rate was at 94%," she said.  "This was just for the students that attend Lansing High School.  Regents with advanced diploma were 53% and the last year it was 74 students at 86%.  We're looking at every child and making sure they're in some program.  We talk with families way in advance.  For us one student could be the difference between 90% and 85%."

Why does it cost so much per student in Lansing?
According to a state calculation it costs an average of $22,573.  Similar schools spend only $20,538 and state-wide the average is $21,812.  These numbers a misleading at first glance, because it costs a lot more for special education than to educate the general student population.  Lansing spends less on special education, but more for the larger population of students.

$12,600 to educate Lansing students and $22,373 for special education students.  Similar districts only spend  $10,677 per student, but spend $30,207 for special education students.  When you look at the state averages, schools in New York spend #11,739 (and $31,502 for special ed).

So why is Lansing so high?

"We did some serious research on this and we found our teacher retention rate is significantly higher than at other schools," Pettograsso said.  "75% of our teachers are dual certified or have two masters.  They're here.  They're staying with us.  We have a salary matrix that allows them to grow professionally and be compensated for it, as well as being here for years of service."

When and Where Do You Vote?
The Budget Vote and Board Election is next week on Tuesday, May 17, 2016 7am to 9pm at the Lansing Teacher Center, which is located in the RC Buckley Elementary School District Office Entrance.

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