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The Lansing 2012-2013 school budget gap is dropping, and that changes the list of items to be cut next school year.  At the end of last month school officials said they would be applying $2.04 million of appropriated funds to a $2,836,500 gap, leaving $790,000 that must be made up somehow.  District Business Administrator mary June King and Superintendent Stephen Grimm presented the last in a series of budget breakdowns to the Board Of Education Monday.

The money comes from conservative spending throughout this school year.  Grimm says that $1.75 million can be appropriated for next year's budget without digging into reserves.  Currently Grimm is projecting a 4.5% rise in the tax rate.  About 3% of that comes from the reduction in the value of the AES Cayuga power plant that will necessity other taxpayers making up the difference.

Over the past few months Grimm and King have explained different sections of the budget at each school board meeting in order to give board members a detailed, comprehensive understanding in digestable chunks.  Monday's presentation concluded those presentations, and included the latest calculations and projected cuts.

The latest version of the 'cut list' of supplementary reductions reduces $460,000 of positions and programs that school officials say will not significantly impact education at Lansing.  School Board member Glenn Swanson noted that some of the cuts would be appropriate even if money weren't tight, because a diminishing school population would mean cutting personnel and items that are not needed.  Grimm pointed out that many of the personnel cuts are due to attrition.

The list removes a total of $460,000 from the budget.  That includes assistant coach salaries, a teacher aid that assists with attendance in the elementary school, a 0.5 FTE cut of a business teacher in the high school, a cleaner, 0.5 of an enrichment teacher, Director of Technology, 0.5 of a middle school ELA teacher cut, a health teacher, a 0.6 foreign language at the middle school, a microcomputer specialist, sabbaticals, 0.5 of a science teacher, a special education teacher in the elementary school, a school psychologist, and middle school summer school.

The largest cut on the list is a school psychologist position, which would be left empty by a retiring employee and not filled.  Board member Christine Iacobucci questioned the cut, saying that the stress, anxiety, depression, home life, drug and alcohol abuse teenagers experience makes the position important in the district.

Salaries are expected to cost the district $11,323,054 next school year, a 6.16 rise from this year.  Benefits will cost the district $6,961,262 for a 6.52% rise.  Together they account for 69.12% of the projected $26,456,289 budget.

Resident and Lansing alumni Walker Reynolds spoke in support of the proposed budget.  Reynolds said that the high quality of education in Lansing warrants the community's support, especially in light of the fact that the numbers show his school tax this year will be almost $200 less than it would be if you take his 2002 tax rate and account for inflation.

He presented a spreadsheet and charts showing his property's tax history over the past decade.  He said he will be paying $158.75 less this year than the 2002 school tax rate adjusted upward for inflation.

"You have decreased my tax rate about $200 real dollars, and I thank you," Reynolds said.  "I've heard a lot of arguments that we've being taxed to death.  The simple reality is when you look at the numbers and account for inflation that's simply not the case."

But board member David Dittman wasn't convinced.  Dittman has been arguing for years for a major budget cut that will restore the budget to a sustainable level despite horrendous leaps in the cost of insurance and employee benefits.  He asked administrators to produce a breakdown of all district properties.

"That was a very interesting analysis on one house," he said.  "I think we ought to do an analyses on the whole district from 2002 to 2012, or maybe 1990 to 2012 and see how that looks.  One house doesn't tell the story, but the whole district tells the story."

If approved as it currently stands the proposed budget will be $26 million, representing a 2.69% growth from this year's budget.

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