Kindergarten at risk: Carmel schools need millions in cuts because of revenue shortfalls

Could the Carmel school district actually eliminate kindergarten this fall?

It's one of many painful options the board of education is considering.

The district has been living beyond its means, so much so that the school board needs to slash and burn at least $6 million in costs in the coming weeks, a top expert on school finance recently told the board.

It seems that all non-mandatory programs and positions are at risk when the school board meets again Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Kindergarten, which is not required in New York, is on the table. Sports. AP classes. Teachers and administrators. The list goes on.

"You should all have a big red pen," Rick Timbs, executive director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium, told the board in a game-changing presentation on Feb. 27. "You will have to actually start undoing the wonderful…programs you have. Because you cannot afford them. You can’t pay for them anymore."

Unwillingness to raise tax levy blamed for crisis

The Putnam County school district of about 3,700 students, with a current budget of $140.9 million, is looking at a $6 million deficit in 2024-25. And that's if the school board proposes raising the tax levy by a maximum-allowable 3.5% and the community votes to approve it in May.

That's a big if in a district that has only raised the tax levy by the maximum-allowable percentage twice since a state-imposed tax levy cap went into effect 12 years ago.

"I feel terrible, as a trustee, to sit here and have to deliver this to our community," board member Melissa Orser said.

The school district's longtime frugality is now the source of its problems, Timbs explained.

The school board's commitment to limit tax levy increases — either to save taxpayers money or because the board feared a money-conscious community would not support larger increases — has left the district without enough revenue to cover its expenses.

Over the last three years alone, by not raising the district's tax levy as much as allowed under the tax-cap formula, the district has sacrificed $12.8 million in revenue, said Timbs, who was hired by the board to do a deep-dive on the district's financial picture.

"The last three years have been crippling to the district, financially crippling," he said. "I hate to tell you this, as an educator: you cannot afford your program any more. It’s gut-wrenching for me."

Still, David Zupan, president of the Carmel Teachers Association, urged the school board to carefully review the complete budget and not make rash decisions about cuts. He noted that state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's January report about the level of fiscal stress facing school districts, which looks at six factors including operating deficits, gave Carmel the lowest possible score for fiscal stress.

Zupan said the board should not assume that Timbs' conclusions are the "ultimate truth."

"I understand that the Timbs report is causing some hysteria," Zupan said. "But how can we be in that situation if the comptroller's report found no fiscal stress? We really need to slow down and scrutinize this budget. We hope to operate on facts, not fear."

Kindergarten, sports, Nurses at risk

After Timbs' presentation, John Fink, the district's assistant superintendent for business, confirmed the dire forecast.

He said that if the district maintains its current programs and staff in 2024-25, with ordinary cost increases, the tax levy would have be raised by 9.44% to support the budget.

More likely, he said, the district will have to cut at least $6 million in costs.

He outlined some possible targets and their costs: kindergarten, $1.7 million; athletics, $1.1 million, the alternative high school, $200,000; the high school's business department, $662,000; two school nurses, $208,000; high school guidance counselors, $215,000 each; assistant principals, $180,000 each; the director of human resource, $182,000.

Fink said the administration would also approach the district's unions about reopening contracts to find savings.

Erin Hallion, a Carmel High School graduate who has a child due to enter kindergarten this fall, said she did not know what her family would do if kindergarten is eliminated. She could not understand how the school board was not aware of a revenue problem that's been worsening for years.

"I can't imagine it's not someone's job to know this," Hallion said. "How could this not have been caught before now?"

She said she's learned of the situation from word of mouth and has received no official communications about the budget crisis from the district.

Timbs noted that the district's long-term problems were covered up the past two years by $5.7 million in federal stimulus grants and a 21.5% increase last year in state "foundation aid".

But federal aid has run out and Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a 0.13% decrease in foundation aid, or $33,600 less, for Carmel.

School districts in poor communities, like East Ramapo and Mount Vernon, often have difficulty raising their tax levies. But last year, seven out of 53 districts in the Lower Hudson Valley chose not to increase their tax levy at all this year because they were flush with federal and state aid.

'We're running out of time'

On Tuesday, the Carmel administration is expected to outline in the high school gym extensive packages of spending cuts for the school board to consider. The board is due to adopt a budget proposal on April 16 and must decide how much of a tax levy increase to ask voters to support.

After Timbs' presentation, several board members seemed stunned by the seriousness of the district's financial crisis. They said administrators should have told them weeks ago, if not months ago, that devastating spending cuts would be necessary.

"The problem is we're running out of time," board member John Curzio II second.

"The ball has been dropped," Orser said.

Former Superintendent Mary-Margaret Zehr left the district June 30 after two challenging years. Joseph McGrath, who joined the district in 2021 as director of instructional technology, has been serving as interim superintendent. Erin Meehan-Fairben, currently associate superintendent of Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES, has been named the next superintendent, but won't start until July 1.

McGrath, who has to see the district through the immediate crisis, said Friday that administrators will present short and long-term options to the board at Tuesday's meeting, after the board hears from the public.

He said the district is also setting up community meetings on March 14 and 18 to hear the public's questions and priorities.

"This is anxiety-producing for a lot of folks," McGrath said. "The message has to be that we're in this together."

McGrath said he could not comment on spending decisions made before he became interim superintendent.

"This did happen over multiple years," he said. "I don't know what people knew. All I can address is where we are now and the cards we were dealt."

Timbs did tell the school board that district auditors had warned for years that revenue shortfalls would catch up with the district's finances.

How much will board raise the tax levy?

The school board faces another pivotal decision: how much to propose raising the tax levy.

The state's "tax cap" will start at 2% next year, but individual school districts can wind up with higher or lower caps based on several factors. The Carmel school board can seek public support to raise its tax levy up to 3.5%. To break the cap and go higher, it would need support from 60% of voters.

If the board proposes raising its tax levy by less than 3.5%, it would have to cut even more than $6 million in costs.

But that's not all.

Should the community ultimately vote down the board's proposal, and a second proposal, forcing the board to adopt a "contingent" budget with no tax levy increase, the board would have to cut millions more in spending.

Timbs suggested that board seek community support to raise the tax levy more than 3.5%. But several board members were skeptical that the community would support even a 3.5% increase.

Curzio said that proposing a 3.5% increase would be "the quickest way to get to a contingent budget, because it would fail and it would fail on a revote."

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Carmel NY schools may cut kindergarten, sports in budget crisis