New York school district budget analysis

Budgetary concerns have become a major issue for legislative bodies around the world. COVID- has exacerbated many of these concerns as states must now contend with lower revenue projections coupled with higher cash expenditures. School budgets are not immune to this occurrence and in fact, suffer more so because of it, as will be detailed below. The current New York school district budget is $168,142,155 which is an increase of roughly 2.37% from last year. The budget increase is in line with historical inflation projects of 2% (although inflation projections have changed in recent months due to supply chain disruptions internationally). The budget is supported primarily with tax levies and state aid. The budget itself is comprised of three components with include Administrative, Instructional Programs, and Capital (Abernethy, 1999). Administrative capital is heavily related to teachers, and their corresponding salaries and benefits. It also includes other workers such a grounds keeper, janitors, security and so forth. The Instructional Program sections includes expenditures of school programming such as after-school programs, extra-curricular activities, books, desks, lunch programs, and more. Finally, the capital section includes capital projects designed to improve schools and the surrounding infrastructure. The bulk of the budget, or $126.5M as spent on instructional programing. The remaining budget amounts were spent on Capital improvement at $24.3M and Administrative at $17.2M.

When reviewing the 2021-22 budget and comparing to 2020-21, the primary catalyst was COVID-19 and its implications for instruction within the school district. The 2021-22 budget looks to take a conservative stance related to COVID-19 and has allocated a large portion of its budget to mitigation efforts as compared to 2020-21. This budget allocation appears justified for a number of reasons. First, New York, was the first epicenter for the pandemic as it relates to the United States, which may be informing the conservative nature of the budget allocations. During the beginning of the pandemic, New York accounted for most of the COVID-19 cases and a majority of the deaths in the United States. In addition, air travel and tourism created substantial risks for school ages children and parents with New York relative to other areas of the world. Travel and tourism are particularly dangerous as different variations of the virus could enter the United States through New York. Finally, structural considerations are also the reason for the increased COVID-19 expenditures within the budget. As New York is very compact, social distancing efforts are very difficult to maintain. In certain instances, social distancing is impossible given the close proximity and small living spaces that are common in New York. This has very large implications for schools as they are unable to open due to confluence of the influences related to the health of both the child and the parent. As children could not attend schools, parents could therefore not go to work and leave their younger children uncared for.

The budget appears to recognize these structural issues related to New York and is thus looking to mitigate their potential influence on schools within the district. Specifically, the budget calls for a $200,000 increase in custodial salaries (1620-166-00-48-00) as compared to last years budget. These custodial services will be heavily involved in disinfection and cleaning efforts within the schools. This is particularly important to provide the spread of COVID-19 within the school, while also protecting children from contracting the virus. In addition, the budget calls for an addition $50,000 for Custodial supplies (1620-511-00-48-00) as compared to last year. Per the budget, these supplies will be directly related to items such as disinfecting sprays, garbage bags, toiletries, wipes, tissues, and other cleaning supplies. In addition, health science supplies (2815-554-00-CO-00) saw a nearly $500,000 increase in its budget relative to expenditures last year primarily for the same reasons mentioned above.

Maintenance line items also saw a very robust increase in the 2021-22 budget as compared to the 2020-21 budget. Again, much like the custodial services, much of the increase was attributable to line items designed to keep both parents and teachers safe within an COVID-19 environment. The largest increase occurred with the Building and Furniture Repair Supplies line items (1621-515-00-48-00 )which saw a $250,000 increase as compared to last year. COVID-19 has been known to remain on surfaces, cracks, and commonly used areas. This allocation appears to address that by allowing maintenance staff to properly replace or repair item that are believed to be at risk for both children, parents and teachers.

Security guard salaries (1622-166-00-00-00 ) also saw a $150K increase as compared to last years budget. This is need to protect both students and staff during uncertain economic times. Although the economy has improved dramatically since the depths of the financial crisis, many Americans are still unemployed, which often leads to crime. If another wave occurs, or additional layoffs occur, crime can start to manifest itself once again. Schools must also be cognizant of internal crime, theft and abuse. As noted above, the budget calls for increases in both maintenance staff, custodial staff, and instructional staff. Increased security is need to ensure that supplies are not stollen for individual use during COVID and that staff members are acting in an honest and disciplined manner during these uncertain and often confusing times.

Up until this point, the budget changes primarily focused on supplies, cleaning, maintenance and oversight of schools. However, the budget does address many concerns for instructors and staff working in the schools directly. Firs, the budget looks to help teachers directly through sick leave pay and vacation pay. Here the budget increases this line item (2020-159-00-00-00) by roughly $240K as compared to last year. Unfortunately, teachers will get sick with COVID-19 and will need to self-quarantine. The budget allows these teachers and staff to do so without fear of losing income that is much needed during these uncertain times. The increase is in addition to their already generous benefits package which also saw a budget increase in the 2021-22 budget. For example, the unemployment insurance line item (9050-815-00-00-00) increased by $110,000 or 122% as compared to last year to further solidify the financial needs of teachers as they attempt to teach students during this unprecedented time.

Finally, the budget would not be complete without addressing technology. As with many other school districts around the country, New York elected to use a hybrid approach to education. This approach allowed children to attend school physically while also giving parents the option of virtual learning. To account for this the budget, increase the Technology Services (2630-490-00-41-00) line item by over $400,000. This line item includes expenditures related to Chromebook, headsets, network services and more.

Offsetting these budget increases were a number of declines. For one the BOCES Services (2332-490-00-00-00) was completely eliminate this year as compared to last saving roughly $300,000. BOCES is a public organization that was created by the New York State Legislature in 1948 to provide shared educational programs and services to school districts. BOCES services are created when two or more school districts decide they have similar needs that can be met by a shared program. BOCES helps school districts save money by providing opportunities to pool resources and share costs. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, this program needed to be eliminated for a number of reasons. One, it is difficult to police and oversee cleanliness efforts in other neighboring districts. One district for example, may have higher cleanliness and COVID-19 oversight standards relative to another district. As a result of COVID-19, by pooling resources, districts run the risk of cross contamination which undermines all of the budgetary efforts being put in to custodial, maintenance and security efforts.