POTSDAM — The two St. Lawrence County school districts whose budgets were narrowly defeated Tuesday are assessing what went wrong, and what to do next.
Elizabeth A. Kirnie, superintendent of Norwood-Norfolk Central School, says that several factors may have played a role in Tuesday's narrow defeat of the district budget. Voters turned down the $19 million budget, which included a 10 percent increase, 278-268.
Property revaluations in the town of Potsdam may have frustrated voters from the village of Norwood, while dragged-out negotiations with the teachers union may have influenced others, Mrs. Kirnie said.
"At this point, it's not clear to me that there was one overriding factor that led to the budget being narrowly defeated," she said. "My next step is to educate myself and the board, using exit polls primarily, as to why people voted the way they did, so we can craft an appropriate response."
Potsdam Central School Superintendent Patrick H. Brady also said property revaluations played a role in the defeat of his district's $26.3 million budget, 300-286. The budget included an 8.8 percent increase, as well as a 4.1 percent hike in the tax levy to $10.4 million.
Mr. Brady also pointed to a worsening economy and high gas prices as factors putting the squeeze on voters this year.
"The vote was close, so we will go back and take another review of the spending plan and look to resubmit to the voters next month," he said. "I'll set up a finance committee very shortly to decide what modifications to make, and we'll work to increase communication efforts with the Potsdam community."
Potsdam and Norwood-Norfolk officials will be poring over poll surveys to see what factors influenced voters to turn down the budgets.
Meanwhile, deadlocked negotiations between the Board of Education and the Norwood-Norfolk Teachers Association may have influenced some votes there, Mrs. Kirnie said.
Negotiations have been at an impasse since July 2004 over health insurance costs and retroactive pay increases. The school district's teachers have been working without a contract since June 30, 2004.
It's not yet clear whether Norwood-Norfolk will present a revised budget to voters next month or adopt a contingency budget.
"It's too soon to tell. At this point, I'm not sure which path we'll choose," Mrs. Kirnie said.
Norwood-Norfolk's proposed levy was a 5.3 percent increase, to $5.6 million, while the proposed budget eliminated five teaching positions at the school and reduced two others to part time.
The superintendent said that more jobs could be on the chopping block in crafting a new budget.
"Right now, everything's on the table," Mrs. Kirnie said.
No matter how it adjusts its budget, the district will have to factor in state aid repayments of as much as $150,072. A state Education Department audit revealed aid overpayments of as much as $259,088 to Norwood-Norfolk from the 2002-03 to 2005-06 school years.
"That was totally unexpected. We're trying to minimize that impact by requesting the ability to pay back over a period of years," Mrs. Kirnie said. "I do know we will owe the state some money, so we have to make sure we have the money to pay back, but I don't see that it will sink the budget. It's just another corner to cut."
The district has been working to better its financial situation since an audit late last year revealed it was $154,043 in the red as of the end of the 2006-07 school year.
