Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - With confusion still lingering over what a 2-percent tax cap actually means, members of school boards statewide met in Syracuse on Friday.
The members were seeking solutions to a problem all New Yorkers are facing from the classroom to the board room: Doing more with less.
Syracuse City School Board member Patricia Body knows all too well the challenges districts face. The SCSD was among many small city school districts that have been forced to lay off large numbers of employees.
“It’s been awful. I cannot tell you…not only because you’re telling people they have to lose their jobs, but you know the children are having to suffer for what you’re having to do,” Body said.
The tax levy cap is a major concern of school board members statewide. On the one side, the cap ties school districts’ hands. On the other, taxpayers who are being asked to pay more with kids in the middle, which is why they’re pressing state lawmakers for what they are calling a more equitable distribution of the school funding pie.
Along with urban school districts, funding distribution affects rural and poorer school districts. More and more districts are considering consolidation of sports programs, transportation, and other common elements. Other areas are looking into county-wide distribution.
“You start talking about things…where we’ll start with extra curricular programs, or curricular, when students are directly involved, people are going to stand up and take notice…those are the kind of conversations you start to do so more and more take place right now,” said New York State Board Executive Director Tim Kremer.
School board leaders are currently asking people to urge their state representatives to vote in favor of school funding redistribution when the issue comes up in Albany.
