PINE BUSH – The Pine Bush Central School District released its projected budget for the 2012-13 school year on Tuesday evening, January 24 — the first big school district in the area to do so.

Superintendent of Schools Phil Steinberg said that the current figures are still just a projection, "A look at the direction we're moving in for next year." However, he also noted that he and his team have been working on this spending plan since the moment the last one was passed.

Steinberg pointed to the "challenge, which is the 2 percent cap on tax warrants." However, due to the state's allocated "growth factor" — derived by Albany from calculations of the increased wealth in a district — an additional .29 percent was allowed for increases in this year's tax warrant. That means a 2.29 percent increase in the tax warrant, or $1,160,654.

The total amount to be raised by taxes was $50,555,544 for the current year. Combined with the warrant increase, estimated state aid of $44,697,106, $2,500,000 from the district's fund balance, plus $1,607,600 in "other" revenue, the Pine Bush total for the 2012/2013 school year, at this point, is $100,520,904.

Steinberg explained that there were $5,119,708 in increased costs for the district. Subtracting $2,103,831 in lost federal funds and a cost reduction plan worked out by the district last year for $668,687, Pine Bush's estimated increase in hard costs was $2,347,190.

School board member R. J. Smith pointed out that an increase of $3,238,143 in employee contracts, primarily for teachers, amounted to a 7 percent raise in payroll costs. He wondered how this could be justified. In addition, Smith pointed to a $962,677 increase in health insurance and noted that the district's benefits bill was almost $10 million now, and would be going up almost ten percent.

Steinberg explained that the 7 percent increase in teacher compensation was made up of several strands.

"There's salaries, steps, longevity," he explained. "A lot of things go into it."

As for the sharp increase in health insurance costs, the superintendent explained that such things are mandated by the state and beyond the power of the district to control.

Asked what would happen if the budget failed to be passed by the voters in May, Steinberg replied, "We would have a zero percent increase instead of 2.29 percent. And that would be, in effect, a cut of $2.3 million."

He added that to override the 2 percent tax cap, a 60 percent majority would be needed. He also referred to some fifty or so other school districts in the state that have exhausted their fund balances and are quite possibly going to become insolvent this year.

Discussing the fund balance, Steinberg explained the district planned to return $2,500,000 to taxpayers from the fund balance each year through 2014-15, eventually reducing its total from a current level of $6,768,354 to $1,484,071.

Roseanne Sullivan said that was a bit "scary."

"We used to keep the fund balance for emergencies, such as replacing a boiler in middle of winter," she added. "There will come a day when we simply won't have enough money to meet an emergency like that."

Steinberg responded that, "The State really expects us to spend it down."

The cost reduction plan is based on several key points. Staff will continue to be reduced via attrition. And Steinberg made the point that the district had already shed 158 positions over the past three years.

There will also be reductions in transportation costs, due to declining enrollment, while staffing will be based on the board's class size policy. In addition, the School Resource Officer position has been eliminated, though Town of Crawford Police will still be rotated through the high school every day. Clerical staffing will be reviewed with an eye for more cuts, and all extra-curricular and athletic programs will also be studied for savings.

The next meeting of the Board of Education will be at Circleville Middle School, on Tuesday, February 21, starting at 6:30 p.m. Superintendent Steinberg said that two further budget forums will be scheduled by then, one in the northern end of the district and one in the south.