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January 03, 2012
To the Editor:
I would like to begin by wishing the entire Cornwall community all the best for a happy, healthy and successful new year. As we enter into 2012, the Cornwall Central School District continues to work extremely hard to bring a quality education to the 3400+ students that attend our schools and those placed outside of our district in special programs. Despite the recurring budget challenges and cuts in educational aid for our schools we continue to maintain our status as a high performing school district in terms of student achievement; academically, athletically and in the arts.
As we head into another budget season, we are scheduling a very important Community Budget Forum to be held on Monday, January 9, 2012 at the Cornwall Central Middle School at 7:00pm. This forum will focus on Understanding the New Property Tax Levy Cap and what lies ahead. I want to remind the community that neither is the “2 percent tax cap” a tax cap nor is the increase likely to be 2 percent. The increase, after applying a complicated formula including exclusions and other variables, is a local calculation specific to each school district. The bottom line is, the law does not cap taxes; rather, it gives voters the ability to cap the tax levy increase. As you can see, in order for our voters to really understand what the future budget vote means and the potential need for a 60% majority to pass the school budget, information needs to be presented clearly and provided to all of our community residents.
In addition to this important information we will discuss the implications of continued cuts and freezes to school aid both state and federal. As you know, unlike many districts in NY State, Cornwall has experienced a steady increase in enrollment over the last 10 years as opposed to many districts that have seen a decrease. It is clear that for this increase in student population since the 2004-05 school year, which is approximately 240 students, the district has not seen additional dollars; therefore the need for services has increased, but the aid has not. That is an average of 20 students per grade with no additional classes added. If you take that one step further, the necessary increase in spending now falls on to the tax levy, which is the amount to be paid in taxes by the residents after all revenues have been applied to total spending. This scenario continues to be extremely challenging for Cornwall!
We will also discuss steps that our community can take in addressing these challenges as we move forward into the budget season. The governor has promised mandated relief, but yet, the panel formed as suggested by him to address this issue has just come out with little to offer in terms of that relief. The panel suggests that in order to meet significant mandate relief it would have to be accomplished by law through the legislature. We need your help in putting that pressure on to our elected officials. We also need the community’s input as to what extent we should consider cutting our programs to meet a palatable cost to education. How much do we have to cut to ensure a 60% majority to pass our budget to continue to provide our children with a quality education?
I encourage all community members to make an effort to join us on January 9 at 7:00 p.m. at CCMS (the new cafeteria) to hear and discuss these extremely important matters that directly threaten the quality of education for all of our children in this outstanding educational community.
Timothy J. Rehm
Superintendent of Schools
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