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April 23, 2024

Dear NECSD students, families, faculty, and staff,

I am writing to provide an update about the district’s proposed budget for next school year. School districts across the state are struggling to propose their budget, facing similar challenges. The NYS School Board Association noted in their release about the budget, “Although the Legislature improved the inflation factor over the governor’s proposal, a number of individual school districts will likely have to consider making layoffs to balance their budgets. That’s because half of the districts in the state will be getting flat foundation aid funding and a 2.8% inflation factor does not come close to meeting the ever-expanding demands that public schools face.” In addition to the challenges we share with other districts, our district is also facing the results of not raising taxes for the last nine years. While that was a decision that may have been best at the time, it is not sustainable. 

As you know, the largest piece of our budget is employee and retiree compensation and benefits. We recognize that our human capital is critical to the success of our students. We have talented and dedicated employees that we believe in compensating to attract and retain in educating our children. As such, this year we have negotiated and finalized healthy contracts for our employees, 60% of whom live right in our school district community. 

Budget Staffing Analysis

Throughout the last two years, my team and I have conducted an analysis of district staffing. We strategically developed and implemented a protocol to analyze each vacancy before it was filled. This is a standard practice in which the financial and programmatic needs for positions are analyzed for alignment. This has been a process that has included building leaders, teachers, support staff, student voice, industry standards, evidence-based practices, equity, enrollment, and the Superintendent’s goals to ensure current programs are supported and projections are kept in mind while focusing on our fiscal responsibility to our taxpayers. As such, adjustments are being made to ensure taxpayer monies are supporting areas that will provide the most for our scholars. 

I understand that people will campaign for the programs that mean the most to them. Since my time here, I have been respectful of the rich traditions that are apparent throughout our district and I recognize that changes to how things have always been done can be difficult. I assure you that we are doing everything we can to maintain and strengthen programs, although their structure may be different than what they have been. Change can be difficult, but we are currently feeling the debilitating effects are remaining stuck in the past, which is not beneficial to our taxpayers or to our children.

Retirements and layoffs

The majority of our employees fall into three main units. The Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) represents our dedicated support staff (security, custodial, maintenance, office staff, food services, teacher’s aides, etc.); the Newburgh Teachers Association (NTA) represents our teachers and teaching assistants; the Newburgh Supervisors and Administrators Association (NSAA) represents our administrators. Each unit has been impacted by budgets in the past, depending on the needs of the district at that time. There have been years where some areas have decreased while others have increased as needed and vice versa. The district simply cannot continue to hold positions that are not in alignment with our goals. 

Below is a description of proposed staffing levels in comparison to staffing levels before the pandemic. This is a snapshot of time. A review of previous budgets and how these groups of people have been impacted will tell the whole story. The district has been transparent in these decisions.

Despite these changes, our class sizes have remained almost identical as compared to before the pandemic - in some cases they have decreased.

CSEA (support personnel) - In comparison to before the pandemic, this total has remained flat. Some areas have decreased while others have increased, as needed. Positions and areas of focus may have changed, but support for the district has remained the same.

NTA (teaching personnel) - Teaching Assistant positions have increased while teaching positions in some areas have decreased since before the pandemic. The total decrease for this area since before the pandemic is 22 positions. Of those, this year, we anticipate 3 layoffs.

NSAA (administrators) - The district has reduced 5 administrator positions as compared to before the pandemic. 

Executive Team - There have been two retirements and one resignation from the executive team this year. We will be hiring for two of those three positions. 

Financial Status

The district is in a healthy financial position. We are in the middle of a two-year plan that we are executing with grace and fortitude, with an emphasis on fiscal excellence and supporting student and staff success. 

The District's Moody's rating is Aa3. This means that any district obligations "are judged to be of high quality and are subject to very low credit risk." It also puts the district in the P-1 category for short-term borrowing, meaning that the district has a "superior ability to repay short-term debt obligations."

Each school district in New York State is statutorily required to undergo an independent External Audit annually; These audit reports dating back to FY18 can be found at the Audits link below. The NECSD has been issued clean audits, meaning there is no corrective action required.

With the Request for Proposals (RFP) for an External Auditor last year, the district sought responses that would increase the testing sample size welcoming additional scrutiny of our books; additionally bringing forward a new lens with which district financials were reviewed.

The New York State Office of the State Comptroller has a fiscal stress monitoring system. Since 2013, NECSD has not received a designation. This means the district has a solid financial position. If not, districts are designated as “susceptible to fiscal stress”, “moderate stress” or “significant stress.”

As a reminder, Budget development presentations for the 2024-2025 school year that have been given to date can be found below. These presentations will continue to evolve following the timeline required by the state and adopted by our Board of Education. I encourage you to watch the entire meeting section and follow along with the presentation to better understand the process and the proposals that are being made. Developing opinions from soundbites and summaries from others who have their own agendas will not properly inform you of this process and even worse, may confuse and upset you unnecessarily. 

Budget Presentations

 BOE Meeting | April 23, 2024
Proposed Budget
Live Stream 

(The meeting will begin at 6pm, with an anticipated Executive Session. The meeting will take place at NFA Main Campus, due to planned upgrades in the BOE Auditorium.)

 __________________

 BOE Meeting | April 9, 2024
Proposed Budget
Video Presentation (begins 54:55)

 __________________

 BOE Meeting | March 19, 2024
Budget Development Update
Video Presentation (begins 1:13:00)

 __________________

   BOE Meeting | March 5, 2024
Budget Development Update
Video Presentation (begins 1:42:25)

 __________________

BOE Meeting | February 27, 2024
Budget Development Update
Video Presentation (begins 43:00)

Sincerely,

Dr. J. Manning Campbell

Superintendent of Schools