Yonkers Board Of Education Recommended Budget
Superintendent's Statement to the Yonkers City Council Budget Committee
May 18, 2009

Historic challenges and historic opportunities
A year ago, no one could have guessed at the depth and breadth of the financial crisis we find ourselves in as a nation, a state and as a community.  However, the opportunities that crisis presents are often similar to those that would be pursued for careful growth and continued success.  Yonkers Public Schools has been, and continues to be, focused on advancing student achievement while maintaining fiscal responsibility. 

Increased challenges; no increased burden on the City of Yonkers
Rather than be victimized by current events, the District was ready to meet the challenge of these times.  As a result, we are able to submit a budget for FY 09/10 that reflects an historically low increase of 0.81% that will not require any additional support from the citizens of Yonkers. 

The $487.1 million budget for the 2009-2010 school year is historically low, yet essential to preparing for the challenges ahead.  The Federal Stimulus package enabled the District to develop a manageable budget this year, but these funds will expire in two years. This budget balances the needs of students and taxpayers while acknowledging there are enormous challenges facing us in the future.

The 2009-2010 Budget adds jobs, including 5 Special Education Teachers, 51 Teaching Assistants for the Integrated Co-Teaching Model, and custodial and maintenance staff to bolster student performance and maintain a safe healthy learning environment.  This cannot be ignored even in tight fiscal times.  Also, due to a review and restructuring of programs, it eliminates 3 administrative positions, 80 teaching positions and 92 civil service positions, and this does not account for attrition or retirements.  In reality, the projected budget is about equal to this year, even with required pay increases included.

The path not taken…
Often, crisis brings out the worst in people and organizations.  There are always “fixes” available that will pass with grudging approval because they affect those without a political voice.  In the case of a school district, those with the least voice in their future are, ironically, the children.  Yonkers Public Schools has taken great care to protect our students and the learning experience they deserve.

In reducing costs for FY 09/10, Yonkers Public School carefully avoided those items that could negatively affect our students.  The District will not increase class size guidelines to absorb higher enrollments; teaching and learning effectiveness will be maintained.  The richness of education will not be sacrificed; art and music instruction will not be reduced.   The prekindergarten program, that gives our students a strong base upon which to build a lifetime of learning, will not be eliminated or reduced.  We will not increase the distance requirement (currently at 1.5 miles) for our students to qualify for transportation.  The District’s high school interscholastic sports will not be curtailed.  And, an arbitrary reduction in department and agency budgets across the District, which might inadvertently affect our students, will not be imposed.  Our first and foremost commitment is to our children and the quality of their education.

A plan for stable, prudent growth
Yonkers Public Schools continues its plan for stable, prudent growth.  Based on trends over the past few years, we anticipated sharply rising health care and petroleum costs that seemed to soar to new heights daily.  Due to national and global factors, neither of those increases materialized.  However, preparation for the possibility of such increases, along with careful management of other financial resources, allowed us to weather a different storm: the reduction in state aid caused by the economic downturn affecting us all. 

The District was concerned that special education costs would continue to grow, including our tuition expense for those students we could not serve locally.  We were able to avoid the impact of such increases by planning, begun in 2007, to improve delivery of our special education services.  Working with nationally recognized experts, the District began a restructuring of its special education classes in 2008 that has led to a new Integrated Co-Teaching Model.  While the goal was improvement, the restructuring had the affect of reducing 51 teaching positions, for a net savings of $1,400,000.  A separate initiative focused on shifting some of our special education students out of inefficient programs into substantially similar programs that demanded lower District resources.  This alone will lead to a savings of over $3 million in FY 09/10.

Collective bargaining agreements for the YFT, CSEA and YCA each provide for salary increases of 3% in the upcoming year.  Our employees deserve a fair wage for the fine work they do in service to the students of the District.  However, with the rights that a union contract brings comes a responsibility to the District and the citizens of Yonkers.  Therefore, the same contracts that provide for salary increases also include, for the first time in the nearly 130 year history of Yonkers Public Schools, provision for employee contributions to District health care plans.  These contributions will amount to $1,264,555 in FY 09/10 and grow in each succeeding year.

The long-term planning that will allow us to continue our student gains next year requires a focus on our financial stability.  The District imposed strict cost-cutting measures to stay on budget in FY 08/09.  All non-priority expenditures were halted and travel and conferences were restricted.  Overtime costs were carefully monitored and the employee overtime cap was kept in place.  Vendor contracts were reviewed and, frequently, renegotiated to more favorable financial terms for the District.  In fact, our financial discipline was so successful the Board of Education trustees were able to return $1.5 million of the FY 08/09 appropriation to the citizens of Yonkers to help close the City’s budget gap in the current fiscal year.

An eye to the future
Careful past planning will help the District survive the current economic crisis.  Continued planning will keep the District healthy for years to come.  To that end, the District is moving forward on implementing new Payroll and Human Resources systems, as well as continuing with plans to partner with the City on an enterprise resource plan (ERP).  Even if a joint ERP solution is implemented, interim concerns with the District’s business systems will need to be addressed.  A new student information service system will replace a system that will no longer be supported after next year.  Among other things, this system will improve processing of student data, which drives our curricular decision-making as well as much of our state aid, and build upon recent efforts to improve our enrollment and registration systems.  We will begin to address Board and District-wide document management issues to further reduce the reliance upon, and cost of, paper and manual filing systems.  Last but not least, the District will establish designated funds for technology, unexpected building repairs, unemployment insurance expense and other post employment benefits to act as a buffer against future economic uncertainty.

In order to avoid any increase in the amount of funding requested from the taxpayers of Yonkers, the District will also designate $7,425,000 to expenditures in FY 09/10.

Our highest priority
Children come first.  Always.  This budget advances student achievement while maintaining fiscal stability. It builds on our strengths as a learning community, elevates rigor in the intellectual development of our students and builds effective leadership throughout the District.  It improves our ability to analyze and share data and, thereby, supports data-based decision-making.  While addressing financial needs, this budget increases accountability of managers and building administrators.  This budget makes our schools innovative and excellent, our business processes reliable and accurate, and our District strong and stable.