Yorktown School District Does Not Project Operations and Maintenance Budget to Increase

The presented this week the second part of the preliminary budget for the 2012-2013 school year, discussing operations and maintenance. 

The following was submitted by the school district:

Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Tom Cole reviewed the proposed Operations and Maintenance budget for the upcoming year. He provided an overview of the facilities, built between 1954 and 1969, representing over 500,000 square feet of building space; he reviewed staffing, including administration, clerical support, custodians, cleaners and tradesmen.

The district has right sized in-house staff to run and maintain all facilities, including buildings and grounds.

The biggest cost contributors, other than for personnel, are for oil, electricity, contractual costs and materials. Mr. Cole emphasized that the capital investments in buildings and grounds is yielding dividends. The buildings are safer, cleaner and more efficient than they were five years ago, and costs have remained consistent with those levels as a result.

The current bond agreed to by the community in 2006 has continued funding infrastructure improvements including more energy-efficient boilers, heating and ventilation systems, which reap benefits in energy consumption, even though the costs of oil and electricity continue to climb.

Overtime functions, including construction and maintenance projects, snow removal, substitutions and contractual callbacks, school and use of facilities by groups from outside the district after the school day have been reduced by 300 hours from the prior year. In 2010-2011, 3,000 events were hosted by more than 40 groups, including summer camps, in gymnasiums, athletic fields and throughout the buildings and grounds.

Contractual costs include local, state and federally regulated inspections and codes, safety compliance, architectural and engineering services, recycling and refuse removal and telecommunications. The largest influences for safety compliance are testing of lead, asbestos and PCBs, abatement, disposal and compliance. The majority of materials used throughout the district are painting, ceiling and cleaning supplies.

Mr. Cole emphasized that projected costs for the upcoming school year are at or lower than levels five, and in some cases 10, years ago, and reinforced the fact that capital improvements have saved the district money on repairs, and have supported significant maintenance oversight and cost controls. This is evidence that the district continues to support Operations and Maintenance in a fiscally prudent manner.

This is an important year of transition and all are asked to work together to write legislators to support mandate relief and to legislate certiorari reform. Public support is needed to help identify new funding sources, to back the local organizations that support Yorktown schools and to stay informed.

The district serves approximately 3,600 pupils in five schools: and elementary schools, , and . Please visit the Yorktown Central School District website regularly at www.yorktown.orgfor updated information, including a calendar of Board of Education budget work sessions and business meetings, informative documents and links.

Videos of Board of Education meetings are archived and can be viewed on the district website. Meetings are available within 48 hours at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on FIOS Channel 27 and at the same times on Cablevision Channel 18 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The next budget work session will be on Monday, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. at the middle school cafeteria. Topics will include the general and undistributed budget discussion.

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