Yorktown Schools to See Slight Increase in General Support Budget

The Yorktown school district presented this week the third part of the preliminary budget for the 2012-2013 school year, discussing general support.

(Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation made by the school district).

Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Tom Cole reviewed the proposed general budget for the upcoming year, which includes costs related to tax certioraris, the operation of the office of the superintendent of schools, business administration and finance, legal counsel and human resources, board of education and voting, and central printing and support.

Cole also highlighted that relative to this group of expenditures county-wide; Yorktown schools are the sixth lowest of 46 districts in the county based on a BOCES contract analysis regarding general administrative support.

Projected expenses for the general support budget will be less than five years ago, in spite of increased unfunded mandates including internal and external audits and expectations to systematically respond to changing regulations from the New York State Comptroller, school officials said.

There will be no change to personnel relative to these functions in the upcoming year. On an unadjusted basis before tax certiorari costs, the increase in general support is $1,345, or .01 percent of the total budget.

The 2011-2012 budget was $8,294,170

The projected 2012-2013 budget is $8,295,515

With a total increase of $1,345

A business tax certiorari permits local businesses to challenge their current and past tax assessments. If a challenge is upheld, each business is legally allowed to collect up to 10 years of claims within only 30 days from Yorktown schools.

Midway through this school year, the Yorktown school district has paid tax certiorari judgments of close to $1 million to 10 local businesses, nearly 20 times greater than two years ago. Over the past four years, the district has been required to repay certiorari totaling nearly $2 million. 

The district continues to leverage its participation in county-wide BOCES contractual services including risk management, health and safety, data warehouse capital, administration in order to remain responsive to state mandates. 

The district serves approximately 3,600 students in six schools: and  elementary schools, , and the and .

The next budget work session will be on Monday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Mildred E. Strange Middle School cafeteria. Topics discussed will include the tax cap, transportation and revenues.

Videos of Board of Education meetings are archived and can be viewed on the district website. Meetings are usually 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.

__

Do you like Patch? "Like" us on Facebook and join the conversation there. Thank you for reading!