Engaging in Long-Range Planning

Message from the Board of Education
Randolph Henderson, President
Pamela Perdue, Vice President

Last year at this time, our message in this publication spoke about our desire to stabilize the budget by employing a variety of strategies to extend the budget process. This included inviting community input via “Budget Listening Sessions,” use of the administrative budget task force, expanding web-based budget communication tools, and exploration of shared services. We are pleased with our progress on these and other budgeting measures and the results they have yielded. We believe that we have accomplished this year’s priority of engaging in a long-range planning model. Furthermore, we believe we offer our school community a budget that is fiscally responsible and appropriate for our students.

The CLCS Board of Education and the school district as a whole recognizes the need and value of thinking ahead. Ongoing cost increases, combined with declining enrollments in the region, require all school districts to use advanced planning and creative thinking to find ways to preserve student programs in a cost effective manner. We believe that the proposed 2007-08 school budget accomplishes this task. The average Consumer Price Index used in the Contingency Budget Cap calculation is 3.2 percent. The Contingency Budget Cap itself is 3.82 percent. We have carefully evaluated student programs and related costs. The result is a proposed budget calling for a spending increase of under one percent. The related tax warrant increase is also under one percent.

Over the last year we have implemented such cost saving measures as: reducing sports program management services, establishing a new shared service in transportation management, and adjusting special education expenses. These steps and others have allowed us to keep costs proportional to revenues without severely limiting opportunities to students. As New York State implements the new “Foundation Aid Formula” (see page 6), the district will continue to conduct advanced planning for budgeting purposes. We recognize that the critical challenge is to continue to be thoughtful about the balance between cost to the taxpayer and benefit to the student. We believe we met that challenge successfully today. We also believe that we are prepared to meet that same challenge tomorrow.

As always, the Board of Education is extremely grateful to the community of Chautauqua Lake Central School District. We value the participation of all our residents and will continue to seek your input and inform you using traditional and new methods of communication. Please plan to learn more about our proposed budget by attending the annual Budget Hearing scheduled for Tuesday, May 8, at 7 pm. Also, please consider voting on both the budget and the two available Board of Education seats on Tuesday, May 15, from 7 am to 9 pm. in the Rotunda at the main (center) entrance.