Archive: News

Fall Creek School is safe—for now.  But the Ithaca City School Board still doesn’t know how to manage a $5 to $8 million shortfall without severe cuts to programs and raising school taxes.

One month ago, Superintendent Judith Pastel suggested closing part of the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) budget gap by closing the smallest school in the district, Fall Creek.   Parents and students from that school organized an ongoing protest.

At the Ithaca City School Board meeting on March 9, Dr. Pastel presented an analysis of savings from the closing, which she said were conservatively calculated at $1 million.  Fall Creek students would move to Beverly J. Martin Elementary School, bringing that institution to a total of 484 students.


After discussing these figures, the School Board voted 5 to 4 not to close the school.  In moving to take closing Fall Creek School off the budget table, Board member Jay True added that the Board and administration should examine all ICSD schools to be sure each one is cost effective.

Seth Peacock  opposed the motion, saying that “this potential million dollars will have to come from other areas of the budget,” such as reducing the Pre-K budget.  “It’s dangerous to assure people we won’t have to do something, and then have to do it,” he concluded.

Sean Eversley Bradwell noted that “the reality is that we’re going to be redistricting sometime soon,” so that moving any school now means it might have to be done again.  Superintendent Pastel responded that although building seems to be increasing on West Hill, “the changes in housing and where people are moving is more difficult to read now than it was six years ago.”

Pastel’s analysis of the potential move underscored the complexities faced by school administrators.   Simply trying to count students runs into issues of open enrollment—some students can choose where to go to school—and numbers of entering students. 

Developing a budget faces similar problems.  For example, discovering the precise amount of the budget shortfall has been difficult, and on Tuesday night, the Board spent twenty minutes scheduling a series of budget meetings so that everyone could attend.
 
Meanwhile, the business of the school, and the needs of the students, continue.  For example, in January, New York State changed required graduation rates from 55% to 80%. ICSD, with graduation rates around 77%, may face further funding cuts if they can’t bring that number up.  And that means identifying students who need tutoring and test preparation classes.  And that costs money.  School Board members said they would welcome input from taxpayers on what they would be willing to cut to make next year's budget work.

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