Sullivan West finance committee considers new charter

By JANET NOBLE

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — In the wake of the state comptroller’s report charging school district officials with waste, the finance committee of the new Sullivan West school board convened on October 26 at the Jeffersonville/Youngsville campus. Under the chairmanship of Shaun Sensiba, their first charge was to set their charter for the year ahead.

Feeling the weight of the district’s $1.7 million deficit, Sensiba and other board members said it was their mandate to consider how they could save money in this year’s budget. School superintendent Alan Derry immediately objected. He said the board was in danger of setting up a situation in which the administration would be in conflict with the board. “You are confusing the operational with policy. My job is to administer, that’s operational; yours is policy,” he said.

He reminded the board that the public has already approved this year’s budget. “It’s an approved legal document, this budget. The board inherited it and I have an absolute legal right to spend every nickel. I have a responsibility to the public to do the best job possible with it,” he said, adding that the school board has no right to tell him how to spend the budget.

When committee members objected, Derry urged them to leave the administrative operations to him, reminding them that when he took his job, he faced a 38-percent predicted tax increase. Yet, in the last two years, through what he called “creative manipulation and efficiencies,” there has only been a 4.8-percent increase.

Turning their attention to the 2007 budget, committee members determined that they needed to define where they wanted to go in the next five years and how they will pay for it, while keeping any new tax increases less than 5.5 percent.

They decided a good way to do that was to address educational needs. For example, should all students have a practical knowledge of music? Should music be an elective or a requirement in the form of glee club or chorus? Should students be fluent in two, three or four foreign languages? Should all high school students all have four years of math?

The answers to such questions would help determine future costs.

By the end of the meeting, the committee had reached agreement that their charter would be “to prepare and update on an ongoing basis the long-term financial plan of the district, and to propose modifications of financial strategy to the board as necessary and to fulfill any other financial duties defined by the board.”