Category: Whitehall

The vote on the school budget and the one open seat on the school board takes place from noon to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21st.

This year there is one open seat on the Board of Education. Dresden’s Frank Barber is the only candidate running for this seat. I contacted Mr. Barber and below are his answers to my questions. These questions are entirely my own and hopefully you will get a better sense of who the candidate is after reading his answers.

Could you please tell us about yourself and why you are running for the school board?

I am a life-long resident of Dresden, NY. My wife and I have two sons, both of whom attend the Whitehall High School.

I am currently employed as VP of Global Sales for Ames Goldsmith Corporation, in Glens Falls, NY. I have been with the company for more than 15 years now; on July 1st I will assume the position of President and CEO. I am running for a seat on the board mainly because I wanted to give something back to the community. In addition, I have two sons attending the district and I want to ensure that they are getting the best education possible with the financial resources that are available to the district.

Most people look back fondly on some aspects of their high-school education. Could you tell us what your favorite book from high school was? Why was it your favorite book and should it be required reading today?

It would be difficult for me to identify one favorite book, I have always enjoyed the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and I could suggest that many of his works might be a favorite. As for required reading today, I am not an educator, but his works are classics and I suspect they would be good reading in today’s classroom.

The Whitehall school district’s enrollment has declined 143 students between the 2004-2005 and the 2011-2012 school years. When should the taxpayers expect that this declining enrollment will translate into lower property taxes?

The declining enrollment at our school is of concern to me, it is not unique to the Whitehall district, but rather is indicative of a declining and aging population in our area. My concern with the decline is that this requires the fixed costs of the district to be spread across a smaller student enrollment, thereby increasing the cost per student enrolled. As for when this decline will translate to lower property taxes, I think there are variables beyond enrollment that must be taken into account before a conclusion can be drawn on lowering property taxes within the district. My wife and I own property in both Dresden and Whitehall and therefore I have a vested interest in keeping taxes in check.

The job market today is a highly competitive one. Should the school district be doing something that it is not already doing or should it be offering additional classes to see that its graduates have the skills and education necessary for success?

As I am not yet on the board I cannot knowledgeably comment on the classes offered, excepting of course those that are offered to my sons. From a parent’s perspective, I believe that they are receiving a quality education. As for additional classes, I would like to see more focus on technology and computer sciences at the high school level. Computers are such a necessary part of life today, we need to ensure that our students are receiving the appropriate instruction in this field.

I’m sure you wouldn’t be running for the school board if you didn’t care about children. After your term is concluded, what would you like to have accomplished for the residents of the district?

At the close of my term, I would like to know that I worked to keep the district’s property taxes in check, while at the same time maximizing the education that our students are receiving.

Editors Note:

I would like thank Mr. Barber for his answers to my questions..

Last night the Whitehall school board presented the 2013 -2014 school budget that will go before the voters next week. The board has adopted a total budget of $13,733,985 that calls for a 2.19 percent increase in the tax levy. The district also received $418,000 more in state aid than it did last year. This is 5.71 percent increase in state aid.

The total budget for the current school year (2012-2013) is $13,205,125. If you include the increases in state aid and the tax levy, spending will increase $528,860 between this year and next.

If you take the total proposed 2013-2014 budget and divide it by the last publicly available enrollment numbers from the prior year (742 total students), the Whitehall school district is spending over $18,500 per student.

Residents of the district can vote on the budget, Tuesday, May 21st.

Some important dates to put on your local calendar for May regarding the school district.

Presentation of the 2013-2014 school budget.
Monday, May 13th
Large Group Instruction Room
High School
7:00 pm

Vote to adopt the 2013-2014 school budget and to elect one (1) member to a 5-year term on the school board.
Tuesday, May 21st
Large Group Instruction Room
High School
12:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Just recently, school district “report cards” were released for the 2011-2012 school year. (Last year’s school year.) This is the last publicly available information on enrollment. So the most up to date information is for the LAST school year.

Numbers for the current school year (2012-2013) and projections for next year (2013-2014) are not currently available and are only released after budgeting is done for that year. I’d like to see projections for the following year’s enrollment be released as part of the budgeting process for that year but that’s another issue. However as readers of the Huletts Current already know, enrollment has been falling in the Whitehall School District (and is projected to continue to fall) while property taxes have increased over the same period. This is an update to my yearly enrollment table reflecting the most recently released enrollment numbers. When people talk to me about the Huletts Current, I get many positive comments about the coverage of this issue.

	04-05	05-06	06-07	07-08	08-09	09-10	10-11	11-12	% Change
# Students	885	860	858	845	815	779	753	742	-16.15%

The table illustrates that there has been an overall drop in total enrollment of 16.15% during the last eight years. Enrollment has declined every year during that time.

However the problem still remains, the population of New York continues to migrate to other states. This phenomenon can be seen clearly in Whitehall, where the local tax base is not conducive to attracting residents or business investment.

While the state has cut back on it’s share of aid to the district, the falling enrollment has not amounted to any cuts in property taxes. Losing 143 students over an eight year period has resulted in no property tax savings for the local property taxpayers. Hence, a spiraling decline in enrollment never results in lower property taxes, fueling the falling enrollment.

Governor Coumo’s proposed 2013-2014 state budget calls for a 4.4% increase in state aid to school districts. However the proposed increase is not uniform for all districts. The Whitehall School District is presently slated to receive a 3.8% increase.

The state aid figures are not final until the state legislature adopts the budget. Until that happens, the amounts proposed by the Governor are tentative only.

State law limits local property tax increases to 2%, although that amount can go higher with 60% approval by the voters.

The Whitehall School District has hemorrhaged enrollment over the past decade. The enrollment for years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 is included in the school district’s report card. That information is not publically available as of this date.

See the Whitehall School District’s share of state aid under the Governor’s proposed 2013-2014 budget.

Legal Notice
Whitehall Central School District
Notice of Capital Project & School Bus Purchase

NOTICE IS GIVEN that a special meeting of the qualified voters of the Whitehall Central School District, Washington County, New York, will be held in the Large Group Instruction Room in the Junior-Senior High School Building on Buckley Road in the Town of Whitehall, New York, on January 23, 2013, between the hours of 12:00 o’clock noon (E.S.T) and 8:00 o’clock P.M. (E.S.T) during which hours the polls will be opened to vote by voting machines upon the following items:

Proposition # 1

RESOLVED:

That the Board of Education of the Whitehall Central School District is hereby authorized to remove and replace the existing Swimming Pool Roof and the existing Cafeteria Roof of the Jr-Sr. High School building located on Buckley Road in the Town of Whitehall at a cost not to exceed the sum of $240,000 and to appropriate from the unreserved portion of the School District’s General Fund Balance the sum of $240,000 for the cost or so much therefore as may be necessary for such purpose.

Proposition # 2

RESOLVED:

That the Board of Education of the Whitehall Central School District is hereby authorized to purchase one (1) forty-one (41) passenger school bus and one (1) sixty-five (65) passenger school bus for the use by the School District, at a cost not to exceed the sum of $220,000 and to appropriate from the unreserved portion of the School District’s General Fund Balance the sum of $220,000 for the cost or so much therefore as may be necessary for such purpose.

By order of the Board of Education,
Martha P. Bascue
School Districk Clerk