Clock is ticking on Carmel schools' budget crisis, but kindergarten may be spared

Parents and community members had a clear message for the Carmel school district at a long and raucous school board meeting Tuesday night: they are outraged over the district’s budget crisis and they don’t trust the district to fix it.

Many parents shamed the school board and administrators for letting the district get to this point: At least $6 million in cuts will have to be made to staff and programs, all at the expense, parents noted, of Carmel's children.

"How did this happen? Where is the money?" district parent Nick Magliano asked the board. "You guys have built a massive mistrust in the community."

The board and administration heard that message again and again. Many directed their frustration squarely at the back of the head of the district’s assistant superintendent for business, John Fink. Some called him out for having his back turned to the speakers during the public comment portion of the meeting.

But the board and other administrators in attendance absorbed plenty of blame, too.

"There's no accountability ever," said Jerry Lee, a parent. "You have to have seen this coming,"

Many questioned how the district’s financial situation could have come as such a surprise to the district’s board and leadership. Several implied or said directly they suspected foul play.

A consultant told the board last month that it had created a financial crisis by not raising the tax levy as much as allowed for years, while continuing to add expenses. The unfolding crisis has shaken parents in the community, and many said families are actively looking at leaving the school district or Carmel altogether.

With an April 16 deadline to adopt a budget proposal, the district has mere weeks to draft a balanced budget, leaving little time to make major decisions about potential cuts. At Tuesday's meeting, community members made comments before even seeing the latest draft budget that laid out potential cuts. It was almost midnight by the time Fink presented that version of the budget, and the crowd of around 160 at the meeting's start had dwindled to a couple dozen.

Community meetings about the budget are scheduled for March 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Kent Elementary School and March 18 at 6:30 p.m. at Matthew Paterson Elementary School.

Community points to high salaries, leadership problems

At a board meeting on Feb. 27, where a consultant first outlined the seriousness of Carmel's budget crisis, officials raised the possibility of eliminating kindergarten this fall, which would save about $1.7 million.

Many community members Tuesday specifically asked for kindergarten to be spared, saying the impacts of cutting the program would be devastating and long-lasting. Other programs were also defended: high school students spoke of a business program that changed their lives, the Special Education PTA argued against cuts to special education, and others talked about how AP classes make their kids competitive college applicants and how performing arts produce well-rounded children.

Many acknowledged how important all the programs are, but lamented the fact that cuts had to be made somewhere.

Many pointed to Carmel's high salaries for teachers as a major part of the problem.

"I'm here to tell you that the problem is not the tax levy. The problem is the payroll," said Michael Torpey, a parent.

Community members pointed to problems at the top, saying that Carmel lacked strong and consistent leadership.

Former Superintendent Mary-Margaret Zehr left the district June 30 after two years marked by concerns over racism and safety. She succeeded Andy Irvin, who resigned unexpectedly in 2020 after five years leading the district. Joseph McGrath, who joined the district in 2021 as director of instructional technology, has been serving as interim superintendent.

"Our last superintendent. What happened to her?" Magliano asked. "Whose idea was it to take a failed upstate New York superintendent, give her $125,000 more a year and she'd be a great fit for the Carmel school district? We did that for three years and how much did it cost us to get rid of her? And you guys can't figure out why we have no money?"

The board approved Erin Meehan-Fairben, associate superintendent of Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES, as its new superintendent at Tuesday's meeting after she sat through the hours-long discussion that outlined the serious financial situation she would inherit.

Possible cuts across the board

As the meeting continued into the wee hours of the morning, Fink presented a potential budget that would trim $6 million and spare kindergarten. He also presented other hypotheticals that showed how much cutting certain programs, including kindergarten, would save.

In the version that kept kindergarten, programs were trimmed across the board rather than completely eliminated.

District-wide reductions, which included cuts to some clerical staff and two nursing positions, as well as some BOCES programming, amounted to $1,782,200 in cuts.

He said that using grant money to cover certain positions could save $1,036,000. Another $2,049,239 in cuts to operational expenses — like unused sick time, supplies, salary adjustments, contractors — were included in the draft.

The draft budget would cut $2,096,000 from the high school and middle school.

"In this current proposal we are reducing across several different departments: business, science, world language, art, math, social studies and ELA, so components of each," Fink said.

Some positions that would be cut in the latest draft would be through attrition or didn't amount to full time positions.

Those cuts would get the district to the $6 million, but Fink outlined other hypotheticals:

• Retirement incentives to replace higher-paid teachers with teachers lower on the pay scale. It's not clear how much money that would save the district.

• Moving to a Princeton model that would redistribute students between Kent Primary School, which would house kindergarten through 2nd grade, and Kent Elementary School, which would house 3rd and 4th grade. Such a move would save $880,000.

• Reductions to athletics ($1.3 million).

• Eliminating kindergarten (eliminating 10 teachers and 1.5 special education teachers would save $1,651,000).

Fink's presentation also included hypotheticals based on both using $1.1 million in reserves and not using it, and different tax levies. The lower the tax levy, the bigger the gap and the greater the cuts.

Board member Jordi Douglas pointed out that the draft budget Fink proposed didn't include any cuts to administrators.

Community members sought details about when the board was made aware of the budget crisis. Board member John Curzio II said the board was made aware of it Feb. 9.

Eighteen days later, the board still didn't have answers to questions it asked administrators on Feb. 9 or any possible solutions to the budget, Curzio said.

The school board scheduled a work session for March 19. The public portion starts at 7 p.m.

The board also moved to the March 19 meeting a decision on whether to put a $15 million bond for safety and security improvements to the public for a vote.

Contact Diana Dombrowski at ddombrowski@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @domdomdiana

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Carmel NY schools' $6 million budget gap leaves parents with questions