Published: May 16, 2008 10:27 pm            

CITY OF TONAWANDA: Budget totals $30.8 million

Tonawanda City School District taxpayers will be voting Tuesday on a $30.8 million budget that features a tax rate increase of 1.5 percent, which district officials have said is the lowest such rate hike in nearly a decade.

Spending in the 2008-2009 plan is 3.12 percent higher than the previous year’s. The district was able to keep the tax rate lower than in years past because of generous state aid, combined with a grant from state Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, D-Kenmore.

Superintendent Barbara Peters said the district’s 30-member budget advisory team, which was comprised of the Tonawanda School Board and various building and community representatives, crafted a budget that “is both fiscally responsible and educationally sound. ...Our children are receiving a great education at a reasonable cost to our local taxpayers.”

The proposed budget provides for up to nine staff additions, some of which will be funded by grants. Two teaching positions — one in science, the other in health — are not being filled because those teachers are retiring. With the district’s enrollment dropping 3 percent, cutting through attrition is likely to occur more and more in the coming years.

Among the staff additions are a full-time teacher to accommodate the expansion of the district’s universal pre-kindergarten program and a kindergarten through 12th grade literacy coach. Both positions are grant-funded.

The district’s business office is hiring a labor relations/human resources specialist from the Erie 1 Board of Cooperative Educational Services. The position is expected to save the district money because it is currently paying attorneys to handle some of that work.

The 2008-2009 budget also includes a $15,000 “down payment” to fund a school resource officer (SRO), a position that was cut two years ago when the district lost funding for it.

Tonawanda’s School Board is hoping that the city will split some of the costs of having a city police officer in the secondary complex.

“I think this is a prudent budget, and I certainly would support it,” said Mickey Shaw, a district teacher who served on the budget advisory team.

Polls will be open for the budget vote and school board elections from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. First Ward residents vote at Mullen School, Second Ward at Highland School, Third Ward at City Hall, and Fourth Ward at Riverview School.

Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.

        

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