(Photo from Cortland Enlarged City School District).
The Cortland Enlarged City School District Board of Education (BOE) held a meeting earlier this week to discuss the budget, give an update to their code-based learning programs, and hear from the music department and the Cortland Free Library.
Cortland’s next BOE meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. April 17 at F.S. Barry Primary School.
Budget Workshop
The purpose of this workshop was to cover revenue discussion, more specifically to provide guidance regarding what the BOE will support for additional revenue sources to close the budget gap. It was debated if a tax cap override will be requested of the community or usage of the reserves and funds balance will be considered based on the determination of tax levy threshold. The board went with the second option to use some reserves and fund balance from this year to offset tax impacts next year.
With this decision, the board was given three options as to what percent will be put into the tax levy: Option No. 1 with a 15.23% tax levy with no money from reserves; Option No. 2 with a 10% tax levy with $500,000 from reserves; or Option 3 with an 8% tax levy with $950,000 from reserves. The board went with the second option and a final number for the budget will be presented at the next meeting in April.
Code-based learning update
At the beginning of the school year, it was determined that the schedule for the school would be revamped to build in two concentrated intervention blocks for English-Language Arts (ELA) and Math and to better maintain the time of the interventionists. The program, which started as a way to have students stay on track post-pandemic, has become successful as more students who have fallen behind within the past couple years have gotten back on track with their studies.
The program splits third and fourth graders into different tiers, with Tier 2 focusing on students who learn better within small groups and Tier 3 who are kids that are currently below their learning level.
For this school year, all hands will be on deck as team times are scheduled more while code progression is recorded. Each grade will be split into two where children will have a half an hour of ELA learning and a half an hour of Math throughout the day. Hopefully with this change, students will be able to outgrow the program and return to their regular classes with helpful learning techniques they’ve learned while in the program.
‘Music in our Schools’ monthly presentation
Teachers and directors from the music departments in the school district welcomed the board and community visitors as they gave a presentation on how impactful the various music programs have been to the students at Smith Intermediate School.
Starting in third grade, students can join programs like ‘Mini Music Manics’ or Chorus as the recruitment process begins as well. In this process, students are introduced to band and orchestra instruments and can select which instrument to learn while taking lessons. From this year’s process, 82% of students will be learning a new instrument while taking lessons. In fourth grade, there is a 70% participation rate in band and orchestra combined and 57% in the chorus.
During the presentation, the orchestra performed Twinkle, Twinkle, Peanut Butter Sandwich, the third grade “Mini Music Maniacs” group played and sang Catch a Falling Star, and the Percussion Ensemble played their song called Buckets.
Cortland Free Library presentation
Jen Graney, director of the Cortland Free Library, came in to talk to the board about library funding and how it ties to the school budget vote coming up on May 16.
The proposition for continued taxpayer funding of the library has appeared on the annual school budget ballot with annual increases never exceeding New York State’s 2% tax cap until this year.
It was proposed that the increase this year is 8% (from $416,298 to $449,016; increase of $33,304) due to different factors. These include the historic inflation rate, the need to provide fair and competitive salaries for staff, reduced returns from the library’s endowment due to recent market volatility, the need to provide a 25% match for what is believed will be a successful application for a major New York State construction grant, and more.
For more information, the library’s funding and value page on its website can be found here.
