By MICHELLE BESAW
ROUSES POINT — With a cut in state funding, the Northeastern Clinton Central School District is looking for ways to trim the budget.
The preliminary 2010-11 budget proposal is down 1 percent.
To get there, School Board members looked into partial cuts, such as a 20-percent reduction to teacher salaries by reducing classes and increasing class size at the High School.
Instead of teaching five classes, some educators will cut back to teaching four classes. Subjects affected could include English, social studies, math, science and art.
Cutting 20 percent from the family and consumer science position will reduce the budget by $12,280.
"Yeah, it's unfortunate," Superintendent Peter Turner said of the proposed cuts. "But we have to close the gap somewhere."
The board is also looking to eliminate an aide position in the Elementary School, as well as cut two bus-driver positions and a technology position, which is currently vacant.
State cuts aren't the only factor in the board's need to make cuts, as the district has seen a significant drop in enrollment. Since 2006, NCCS has logged a net decrease of 191 students.
"We don't need the same level of services we needed before," Turner said at Tuesday night's budget meeting.
In addition to those enrollment numbers, Turner said, they have 126 students in kindergarten through eighth grade whose families are affected by the closure of Wyeth.
Turner said he already knows of one family that will leave the area, pulling two students from the district.
"Are these kids leaving us or are they staying? It's just something that's on our radar.
"There are still a lot of uncertainties in our revenues and our enrollment."
One area of savings is in energy, which Turner said accounts for a $240,000 reduction in the budget, "because we know we're going to spend less with natural gas."
Turner said they're working hard to keep the tax levy at zero, or as close to zero as possible.
"The real bottom line is our budget proposal for next year is down from the current budget."
But, he said, when you're faced with a gap, you need to either take money out of programs or raise taxes.
"When you take a huge cut in state aid, you have to take it out somewhere."
The next NCCS budget meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, at Mooers Elementary School.
E-mail Michelle Besaw at: mbesaw@pressrepublican.com
