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By a vote of 938 to 817, residents of the Broadalbin-Perth Central School District approved the district’s proposed $29,002,495 budget for the 2010-11 school year. The 1,755 voters was a record turnout for the district.

With the state-wide school budget vote scheduled for tomorrow, many New Yorkers might be asking themselves if it really matters whether they vote.

On May 18, voters will elect three Board of Education members. Two of the board seats carry five-year terms. The other seat is for the remaining two years of the term of John Pecora, who will resign at the end of June for personal reasons. The two candidates with the most votes in the at-large election will receive the five-year terms. The candidate with the third-highest vote total will receive the two-year term.

Using a pre-budget survery, members of the Broadalbin-Perth Board of Education and administration wanted to know what district residents most value in their school system.

Members of the Broadalbin-Perth Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt a $29,002,495 budget proposal for the 2010-11 school year. The proposed budget calls for a 3.98 percent spending increase over the 2009-10 budget and maintains many of the programs that were under consideration for elimination, including all interscholastic athletics and college-level courses.

Leaders of the Broadalbin-Perth Central School District are very concerned about some proposals that Gov. David Paterson has included in his executive state budget. Board of Education members and district administrators have been lobbying state legislators to help them understand how harmful these proposals could be for our district. If you are a B-P resident or staff member and also have concerns, district leaders encourage you to share those concerns with state leaders.

School districts like Broadalbin-Perth obtain revenue from three primary sources: State aid, local property taxes and undesignated fund balances (“rainy day” funds). The district’s two largest sources of revenue, state aid and local property taxes, could take a severe hit in 2010-11 to the tune of up to $1,742,085 – or an 6.2 percent reduction in total revenue from 2009-10.

With schools facing numerous challenges related to this year’s budget development process, Gov. David Paterson has repeatedly suggested that school districts use their unrestricted reserves – known as fund balances – to cover any losses in state aid for the 2010-11 school year.

Broadalbin-Perth, like just about every other school district in New York State, is preparing to face what could be a potentially grim budget season. Here’s why:

Developing a school budget is challenging even in the best of times, but this year the process in Broadalbin-Perth has been downright agonizing. First there was the threat of a mid-year state aid cut, which fortunately didn’t happen. But then came the Governor’s 2010-11 executive state budget, which calls for Broadalbin-Perth to lose as much as $1.5 million in state aid next year.

Academic programs, extracurricular activities and jobs could all be in jeopardy this spring as members of the Broadalbin-Perth Board of Education craft the 2010-11 budget proposal that will be presented to voters in May.