As author Margaret Mitchell said, "Death, taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them." The same is true for the creation of your school budget, where the bottom line for the community is, "How much are you raising our taxes?"

If this herculean task is draining in a good year, you can imagine how difficult and frustrating it is during a recession. The state government is becoming a 'reality show,' said Rye Neck Superintendent Peter Mustich. If state lawmakers can't get New York's budget in line, then schools have to guess at how much (or how little) aid they will receive from the state for mandates and other programs. The only responsible course of action for schools then, is to be fiscally conservative and pay down reserves. But this means either cuts or higher taxes.

Rye Neck's Asstistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Kimberly Bucci, presented the Board of Education and Mustich with a draft of the 2010/2011 budget at last night's planning session. It had been mentioned in an earlier meeting that in order to keep budget increases as low as possible, 2.7 staff positions will be cut.

In comparison, it has been reported that the Mamaroneck school district is possibly cutting 57.4 positions. Budget to budget, this translates to a 2.31% increase for the Rye Town portion of the district and 4.16% increase for Rye City residents. Of course, these are just preliminary figures as the numbers could be reworked when the state completes its budget and public hearings are completed.

This year's Rye Neck school budget saw a decrease of approximately $500,000 from the district's health plan, State-Wide Schools Cooperative Health Plan (SWSCHP). In order to compete with the state health plan, SWSCHP decided to cut their rate for this year. Bucci estimates that these rates might increase about 4.5% thereafter, so the district will have to reevaluate which plan would be more cost effective in the future.

This rate cut put the district in a better position to cover possible decreases in state aid, including money for pre-school special education and summer school special education. A healthy reserve fund is also being used to cover unexpected costs and the rising tide of tax certioraris, which can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost tax revenue for the schools.

The outcome of the current certiorari trial of the Mamaroneck Beach and Yacht Club alone could amount to a loss of over $200,000 for the school district, according to Mustich. The problem is, he said, that the state legislature does not want schools to have a reserve fund. Taxpayer money should not be used to save for "rainy day emergencies." In the future, unexpected repairs, like when the high school roof collapsed, or emergencies might have to be bonded instead of being paid for by the reserves.

Bucci and Mustich are also looking toward future budgets and ways to keep the tax increases as low as possible going forward. Although funding has been cut significantly, the state mandates that public school districts pay for transportation of resident students to non-public schools within a 15-mile radius. There are several ways of doing this using school buses, Metro-North and Bee-Line buses.

As a member of the Sound Shore Pupil Transportation Consortium, Rye Neck and several other local districts have as their primary objective the "creation of a safe, reliable, and cost efficient cooperative transportation system for eligible students attending out-of-district schools." Sharing this service could lower the cost, but it's a difficult task, Mustich said, because buses are needed at the same time for all the districts, and you do not want a child to have to travel for over an hour just to get to school.

A meeting is scheduled with a Bee-Line representative to discuss changes in routes to better accommodate some of these students.

Bucci and the Board of Education will have their first public presentation of the budget and budget hearing on Wednesday, March 17, at 9 a.m. in the community room at Rye Neck Middle School/High School.