JAMESTOWN – Jamestown school officials – along with districts throughout New York State – will have to wait a little longer before they know the specific amount of money they’ll be getting from Albany for next school year.
On Tuesday night the Jamestown School board met and was prepared to get an 2013-14 budget update from school superintendent Daniel “Deke” Kathman and Assistant Superintendent Dale Weatherlow. However, because lawmakers in Albany have yet to finalize a state budget, it is not yet know how much money Jamestown is going to receive and as a result. As a result, the two held off on giving the update.
Jamestown officials are especially anxious to find out the final amount the district will receive because under the governor’s proposed budget, Jamestown is still left with a $1.9 million budget gap for next school year. However, some relief may be in sight. Kathman told the board Tuesday night that both the State Senate and the State Assembly have amended the budget and have included an estimated $300 million in additional aid and he’s hopeful some of that will make its way to Jamestown.
Kathman said that he’s also been in contact with Senator Cathy Young’s office as late as Tuesday afternoon and the discussion has been promising.
“We communicated via email by delivering some timely additional information about our reserves and our fund balance. I can only hope that that information was needed so as to better calculate what additional funds we might receive, but I don’t know that. I’m encouraged that they are asking some late-stage questions and hoping that’s good news on the face of it.”
If the school doesn’t receive any additional funding from what the governor has proposed, it is faced with limited options on how to deal with the budget gap. They include increasing taxes, making budget cuts or a combination of the two.
State lawmakers are expected to have a budget in place by the end of this week. Once that is done, Kathman says he will be able to have a final budget to present to the Jamestown School Board by its next meeting on April 9. The board must adopt a budget by April 26, which then will go up for a public vote on May 21.
Leave a Reply