While there is still a possibility Meagher will be the only school closed this year, the possibility of closing at least one more — and possibly two — picked up steam in mid-December, when Gary Tomczyk Sr., the district’s treasurer, revealed that if next year’s spending plan was the same as the current operating budget, Kingston schools would have to come up with another $12.5 million to cover it. That gap, which some trustees and administrators said they hoped was determined to be an overstatement, would be made up by a combination of higher costs in a wide range of areas, as well as the 2 percent property tax increase cap approved by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The figure does not include the savings realized by the closure of Meagher, a relatively small drop in a very large bucket.
Anxiety spreads
The budget and the need to make up the difference is partly why Zena, Anna Devine and Sophie Finn elementary schools’ closure are back in play, nearly a year after they might have dodged a bullet. For some supporters of those schools, that’s not acceptable when there are other areas yet to be considered for cost savings.
“As a parent, what bothers me the most is that they are going for the things that affect the children directly,” said Jillian Fisher, a Zena PTA member with a child in the school and another who attended there. “I’m not a financial person, but I could look at a budget and say, ‘Let’s wipe out a school; that will save us some money.’ I think it’s harder to go in and really look through administration and bureaucracy and make cuts there. I don’t see them doing that, and it’s frustrating me as a parent. It’s also frustrating to me because I’m a product of the Kingston school system.”
Fisher said she thought the focus should move away from school closure until the board has at least given careful consideration to cutting administrators at the district and individual school levels. A KHS alum, Fisher remembers attending high school at a time when the student population was much greater, yet there was just one principal, one vice-principal and two deans in the school.
“As a product of the district, I don’t understand how with less students, one needs more administration,” Fisher said. “The thing that bothers me the most is that they’re going straight for the elementary school children and are not looking at waste at other levels.”
But some trustees say the overall budget issue and the need for redistricting an increasingly shrinking student population are only connected tangentially.
“We really haven’t even fully engaged in the budget discussion,” Farrell said. “This is part of a redistricting plan, and part of it is budgetary, but part of it is in the interests of downsizing the district. We’ve had over 1,000 fewer students since I’ve been on the board over the last 10 years. That’s the equivalent of three elementary schools. The reality is, that process is beginning at our next meeting and going on until we present the budget in April. We’re going to be looking at other areas. This is only a small fraction of the budget.”
