Oct. 14, 2011
A significant portion of the Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s yearly school budget includes unfunded state and federal mandates to which the district must adhere.
The tax “cap” legislation was approved with a package of changes intended to control school district and local government spending. These included the creation of a Mandate Relief Council to curb some of the laws and regulations that lead to escalating expenses for school districts and local government.
In a press release, the New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said that the package of mandate relief would save the state’s school districts $34.6 million. These savings are just a fraction of the $1.3 billion loss of state aid New York’s districts are seeing in the 2011-12 school year.
School leaders continue to
analyze the new legislation to determine if they will result in any cost
savings for BKW.
The new mandate relief measures include:
• MANDATE RELIEF COUNCIL: This 11-member council will determine if a statute or regulation is unsound, unduly burdensome, or costly; establish procedures for repealing unfunded mandates in both statute and regulation; provide a procedure for direct appeals from school districts and other local governments on mandates; and require the state Comptroller to issue a detailed report on the cost and effect of unfunded mandates.
• STUDENT TRANSPORTATION: The new law allows districts to base bus routes on patterns of ridership instead of having a seat for every potential rider.
• COOPERATIVE PURCHASING: The new law allows school districts greater flexibility in cooperative purchasing with other districts, and state and federal contracts. While this may lead to better deals on some goods and services, BKW already participates in several competitive/joint purchasing, as well as BOCES cooperative biding service.
• SHARING SUPERINTENDENTS: The new law also allows up to three districts with less than 1,000 students to share a superintendent.
• ENERGY PURCHASING: The new law also authorizes the Office of General Services to provide centralized electricity purchases for schools.
• PRE-K CENSUS: Districts need only complete the Pre-K census every two years, rather than every year.
District HOME
