40 Positions on the Chopping Block at Mahopac Schools
The deficit between the current budget and where the Mahopac Board of Education is in its 2013-14 budget process equates to more than 40 full-time positions, according to Finance Chairman Michael Sclafani, who made the public aware of the situation at the committee meeting on Thursday, March 28.
“We are at a point of no return,” said Sclafani. “We have cut athletics. We have cut the arts. All that is left now is people.”
Of the non-instructional personnel 13.5 full-time equivalents (FTE) are proposed to be cut. Additionally 900 hours are to be eliminated from the monitors.
Although 67 teachers were “given pink slips” this week as notice of potential layoffs, School Board President Ray Cote said that most of the faculty were given them as a precaution.
“If the public votes down the budget twice, we could be forced to let that many teachers go,” he said. “The contract with the teachers’ union stipulates that we must let them know.”
The district is not looking to cut its staff by 67 teachers, but almost 26 positions are at risk of being cut under the current considerations including: 14 teachers in grades first-fifth, 1.5 band/orchestra, six teachers at the middle school, six at the high school and one art, one counselor, one physical education teacher and one music teacher.
With the cuts being considered, the proposed 2013-14 budget is at a 1.9 percent tax levy increase over this year, which is below the two-percent tax cap.
As a result of fewer teachers, class sizes are expected to reach 30 students per class.
“I hope you are outraged,” said Scalfani, “We are too. We don’t want to see these class sizes either.”
The board is going to continue to try to find additional sources of revenue and other non-program items that could be cut.
The board members asked the community for its help in reaching out to the state lawmakers about unfunded mandates.
“We need to go State Senator Greg Ball and Assemblyman Steve Katz and have them help us out in Albany,” said Sclafani. “We need to bring them a list of unfunded mandates that work and those that don’t work. Then they need to get rid of those that don’t work. However this will only work if we do it together. We have to continue to work after the budget gets passed.
The next public budget discussion is during the April 18 finance committee meeting.
The budget will be passed by the board at a special meeting scheduled for April 23.
The public will vote on the budget on Tuesday, May 21 at Mahopac High School’s New Gymnasium. The polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
