By:Andrew Coen
The $85,417,887 total budget is just a 2.4 percent budget increase over last year's contingency budget as a result of district 15 voters rejecting two proposed approximately $87 million budgets on May 18 and June 22. After voters rejected the budget on June 22 by 700 votes, the board was forced to cut approximately $1.7 million. However when the board voted to close the Number One School and consolidate the students and staff into the Number Six School building, they were able to save $877,791 a result of having one less building to operate. According to Lawrence Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons, if the board had not decided to consolidate, the district would have had to have allocated about $900,000 more money for workers compensation and unemployment expenses since the district is not allowed to dip into reserves for those services during a contingency budget.
The cuts include $418,042(25 percent) in administration, $871,339 in programs (52 percent) and $379,665 in capital(23 percent). Some of the cuts in the program area include $100,000 in athletics, $80,000 in building and field use,$90,330 in clubs, $60,000 in legal fees and $45,317 in field trips. The athletics cuts include the elimination of high school boys and girls winter indoor track, high school boys and girls bowling, freshman tennis, middle school boys and girls tennis as well as middle school cheerleading according to district officials. The varsity and junior varsity football and cheerleaders will also travel on the same buses to away games this fall.
The cuts also include two elementary school teachers, one special education teacher and a Literacy Coach.
According to school board president Frank Parise, an attempt is being made to get local legislators to pass emergency legislation to allow the board to use no more then $700,000 of the approximately $2.8 million allocated for reserves to go towards programming. "It's our money but we can't use it unless we get approval," said Parise. "If we get approval we would be able to restore some programming."
Any legislative approval would take at least two weeks according to Parise and would need to be approved by the state Assembely, Senate and signed by Governor George Pataki.
The 2004/05 budget is the Lawrence public school's second strait year that the Lawrence public schools are forced to operate under an austerity budget. Last year's budget failed by 1,298 votes, 3,068 to 1,770, on the first try on June 3, 2003 and by 850 votes, 3,039 to 2,189, on the second try on June 30. 2003. The last district 15 budget to pass came by a slim 14 vote margin, 1,210 to 1,196 in June of 2002 after the but the first proposed budget flopped by 2,528 votes.
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