Component district superintendents and business officials discussed budget proposals, workforce needs and state mandates with state Office of General Services Commissioner Jeanette Moy at a Monday event hosted by Capital Region BOCES District Superintendent Lauren Gemmill.
During the hour-long session at the Career and Technical Education Center – Albany campus, Moy—who sits on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s cabinet—outlined the state budget proposal and fielded questions and feedback on topics ranging from free meals to cell phone bans in schools.
Among the initiatives included in the governor’s budget proposal that Moy detailed for the approximately 30 district officials in attendance were:
- A 4.7% increase in school aid up to $37.4 billion
- $1.5 billion in foundation aid
- Creation of a new College in High School program to provide college credits to high school students
- Increased effort through the new ON-RAMP program to prepare students and the region’s population for the high-tech jobs being created in New York state
- Middle class tax relief, which would result in the lowest income tax rate in 70 years
- Inflation tax relief checks of $300 (single person) and $500 (family) being mailed out later this year
- $100 million in funding for new and existing childcare facilities
- Increased child tax credit
Moy stressed that Hochul’s key priorities are to reduce crime while making New York more affordable for families.
During a question-and-answer session, district officials detailed several matters of concern.
One topic of particular interest that superintendents and Gemmill drove home to Moy was a general concern over the timeline for the state’s 2035 mandate for districts to have fleets of electric buses.
Officials said it was necessary for the state to put the brakes on the issue due to issues ranging from a lack of electric infrastructure to the costs of the buses to the inability of the buses to stay charged in cold weather.
The mandate and timeline “are problematic from beginning to end” Gemmill stressed.
Component district officials voiced support for creating distraction-free learning environments by regulating cell phone and personal device usage in school, though some questioned the costs of the mandate set to take effect in September.
“It’s not just the cost of a storage device but having to hire the humans to enforce the policy at a time when we cant find personnel,” Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Superintendent Brian Bailey said.
Component superintendents stated in their advocacy paper this year, that “local school districts are best equipped to create policies that reflect the unique needs and values of their communities, which may include instructional use, health monitoring and community input.”
Also on the workforce front, the district officials raised concern over their continued troubles in recruiting new hires for positions ranging from teachers to aides to custodial staff and expressed an interest in partnering with the state to recruit displaced federal workers.
In their advocacy paper earlier this year, the superintendents specifically asked lawmakers to reform the tier 6 retirement system to provide pension benefits that are more competitive with those of other tiers including allowing for retirement at age with 30 years of service.
“We need a sustained, strategic approach across the board to get back to where we were on the hiring and workforce front,” Gemmill stated.