Posted January 19, 2012

Under Governor Cuomo’s proposed Executive Budget released on Tuesday, North Colonie is scheduled to receive $16.7 million in state aid in 2012-13, a decrease of $52,000 from the current year.

Gov. Cuomo has increased statewide aid for education by $800 million, or four percent, and has broken the distribution down into three components – two of which North Colonie may not be eligible for.

Breakdown: 2012-13 Executive Budget Proposal for State Aid [PDF]

$290 million is provided for general support to high-need districts, which North Colonie is not. Another $265 million is earmarked for increased reimbursement in expense-based aid programs, such as textbooks, transportation and debt service. The district has to use this money on these programs only or they will lose it.

The third component is a competitive grants program. The grant money will be awarded to districts based on performance. $250 million is slated to be paid to districts in 2012-13 that implement innovative approaches to achieve academic gains and management efficiency. North Colonie is widely considered one of the more efficient and higher achieving districts in the area, as shown in the Capital District Business Review’s annual rankings, and therefore may or may not be able to apply for these grants. Details on the specifics of the guidelines for the grants are unclear.

New state mandates have also been established that the district has to abide by. These new standards will not only change the way schools across the state approach instruction but they also come at a cost to the district at a time when the state is not providing any additional funding to support these mandates. The district will have now pay for these mandates, which include the Common Core Standards, Response to Intervention, APPR, new State assessments and more, out of their existing funding sources, as opposed to having additional aid from the state.

“We were anticipating a greater share of state aid,” Superintendent D. Joseph Corr said. “It is clear that the breakdown of the aid was devoted to high-needs districts, or was either expense or enrollment driven. We didn’t realize anywhere near what we had hoped to receive.”

The proposed Executive Budget also links additional state aid to compliance with the new teacher evaluation process. School districts will not be eligible for aid increase unless they fully implement the new teacher evaluation process by January 17, 2013.

The Governor also announced that a Commission will be created by Executive Order to focus on school accountability – in both management and teaching – in order to improve student achievement and operational efficiency.

Other Education Budget Actions

Reform Teacher Disciplinary Hearings

The proposed Executive Budget recommends several reforms to the teacher disciplinary process. These proposals include allowing the State Education Department to set reasonable limits on the costs of teacher disciplinary hearings, disqualify hearing officers who fail to comply with statutory deadlines, and change the payment structure to encourage speedier outcomes. The new payment structure will have the costs of teacher hearings shared by school districts and the employees’ bargaining unit, or the employee if not represented by a bargaining unit, so that both have a stake in the timeliness of the process. Savings to the State will be reinvested to reduce the backlog of payments owed to school districts.