The Husky Huddle

Navigating the Fiscal Landscape: Jenny Bilotta on Olean City School District's $56 Million Educational Investment

• Genelle Morris

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Unlock the mystery behind a school district's budget and discover the pivotal role you play in shaping the future of education! We sit down with Jenny Bilotta, our formidable business administrator, to scrutinize the proposed $56 million budget of the Olean City School District for the 24-25 academic year. This eye-opening discussion peels back the layers of fiscal decisions, revealing how they align with our district's mission and the impact on our cherished student programs. Jenny meticulously outlines strategic initiatives, including the exciting launch of a computer science curriculum and the expansion of our MTSS initiatives, underscoring our dedication to student achievement and success.

Amidst the numbers and statistics, Jenny addresses the heart of our community—our students and educators. She discusses the reintroduction of special education programs within our own schools, highlighting the personal and academic benefits of familiar environments. The conversation also tackles the ongoing challenges of staffing, the importance of professional development, and our commitment to maintaining safe learning spaces. All this, while ensuring fiscal responsibility with a modest tax levy increase of 1%. Tune in to discover how this budget blueprint stands as a testament to our unwavering commitment to educational excellence and the prosperity of our students.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to our most recent episode of the Husky Huddle. I am joined with our esteemed business administrator, Jenny Malata. He's gonna answer all your questions, concerns and wonderings about our upcoming budget and tell you just how you can participate in our upcoming budget vote. And we can't wait to see all of you here for our budget vote next week, where you can show your support for Olean City School Districts and the programs that we offer to our kids. So, without further ado, the programs that we offer to our kids.

Speaker 2:

So without further ado, jenny, you're up. Thank you, I appreciate you having me again. The last time that we spoke, I focused more on the budget development process. Today, I want to speak more about the actual specifics of the budget. I will briefly go through the content of the budget in an attempt to further explain how and why we included what we did in the budget for the 24-25 school year. So I ask you know, I indicated during our last podcast that we started our budget development back in the fall.

Speaker 2:

Our entire budget development has really revolved around our goals and our new mission and vision statement that we have for the district. We updated that mission and vision statement last year and that has really been the roadmap for everything that we do here at the district this year and moving forward From the mission and vision statement, the board and the administration develop goals from that, and the budget that I'm going to share with you today provides the, provides the administration with the resources going forward to ensure that those goals really become a reality for our students and our staff. So there are five main goals that we developed our budget around, and the first one being student achievement and some of the items that we've included in our budget for next year ensure that the student success is the. You know that we ensure student success in implementing our new computer science curriculum. We're looking to hire some computer science curriculum. We're looking to hire some computer science teachers. We're also expanding our MTSS initiatives and implementing recommendations from our special ed task force. That was another big initiative this year that we really took a look at and we discussed that during our last podcast as well. The most significant portion of our budget modifications are in the area of special education. We'll be bringing back several special ed programs to our district as opposed to sending them out to placements outside our district or within the BOCES programs.

Speaker 2:

This initiative really is twofold. We believe that the best place to educate our students is in our own buildings, so the students spend less time on the buses and have an opportunity to interact with their own peers in the district that they reside in. Additionally, we've seen a lot of success in the programs we've run in our buildings lately, particularly at the high school, so we want to carry that through to the other buildings as well. We are also focusing on the needs of our personnel as a goal this year as well. We want to make sure that we have professional development that they need for each and every one and that we're adequately staffed in all areas, and obviously staffing has been a huge challenge for all districts, regardless of your location. We're also carrying through with the goal of having a safe and supportive learning environment for all of our students, while maintaining strong communications and transparency throughout, particularly around the area of public relations and social media. Obviously, many of our listeners, I'm sure, can attest to the fact that we've really boosted up our social media presence in the last year and we want to make sure that that's, you know, carried out into next year as well. And all of these goals really are carried out while keeping the fiscal responsibility in the forefront of our minds.

Speaker 2:

Speaking of fiscal responsibility, let's talk about the actual numbers now. Our proposed budget for the 24-25 school year is $56,169,525. This does represent a 9.06% increase in our budget, but the most important thing is that the tax levy increase is only 1%. There are two significant areas really responsible for that 9% increase and they include increase in our debt service budget and an increase in our employee benefits. The debt service budget is just below $2.5 million and our employee benefits are increasing about $1.6 million. The debt service budget. We anticipated that increasing. We knew that was going to happen when we planned our last capital project. The good thing about that is we also have the offsetting building aid to balance out that increase, so there's no impact on our tax levy because of that. That expense is offset by that incoming additional revenue. The employee benefits, unfortunately, we can't say the same about we are seeing a drastic increase in our health insurance rates. Our premiums are going up almost 25%. You know that was not predicted, so you know that's something that we have to adjust our budget for. We also saw some smaller increases in the cost of transportation and our instructional budgets as well. When we look at our budget, the largest portion of it is our instructional budget, which we would anticipate that it's about 61 percent of our budget comes from the instructional side of it. 21% of our budget goes towards employee benefits and the rest of the budget is a much smaller portion. So that really shouldn't be surprising to anybody, because the main focus of our entire budget should be instructional opportunities.

Speaker 2:

So how are we paying for the budget? You know that's the question that I'm sure a lot of our listeners are interested in how are we paying for this and what impact does it have on the taxpayers? As I indicated earlier, you know we are seeking a 1% increase in that levy, as you heard me say previously. You know we're very heavily dependent on our state aid. In the Olean City School District, 70% of our revenues actually come from state aid. So when the state aid, you know, increases or decreases, that has a huge impact on us. 25% of our revenues come from taxes and pilot revenues here within the city, taxes and pilot revenues here within the city, and another 5% of our budget is made up of fund balance reserves and other miscellaneous revenues.

Speaker 2:

This year we are looking for that 1% increase in the tax levy. The Board of Education has increased taxes only 1% in one of the previous 10 years, so over 10 years it's only increased 1% In order for us to maintain that same level of programming for our students and not reduce the opportunities that we offer them. We are seeking this assistance from the taxpayers in order to maintain the same opportunities that we offer our students. So how does the 1% tax levy impact impact individual taxpayers? Using some assumptions obviously, such as assuming that a home is located in the city of Olean and assuming assessed values and equalization rates and all that stuff don't change. A $50,000 home in the city of Olean will see their tax bill increased by about $4 next year. As a result of this 1% tax levy increase, a $100,000 home in the city will increase about $13. About $13. We truly believe that this is a nominal price to pay to ensure that the students get the best education possible here in the Olean City School District.

Speaker 2:

If anyone has any questions about this, I encourage them to reach out to me. Let me know. I'm happy to answer any questions. Budget and tax information in general can be very confusing, so we recognize that. So that's really the summary of our budget.

Speaker 2:

I would like everybody to remember to vote on Tuesday May 21st. If you don't take anything else from this, just remember to vote Tuesday May 21st. Please vote All day, yes, from 7 to 9. So 7 am to 9 pm you can vote at the only and intermediate middle school right in the music suite. The only portion or the only proposition that you will actually see on the ballot this year is our budget.

Speaker 2:

In years past we've had different things. This year it's just one proposition for the budget itself. We do have three candidates running for two at-large positions on the school board. We have Alan Peters, renee Hauser and Elizabeth Burroughs all running for two seats, so the individuals obviously with the top two votes will be appointed to the school board. So just in closing, you know, if you have questions, I encourage you to reach out to me. You can call my office. You can gather more documentation on our website. You can email me whatever way is most convenient. The best vote is an educated vote, so I encourage people to ask any questions that they have and I'm happy to answer them.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. So if you're listening and you don't quite know how to reach our business official, please go to our website at wwwoleanschoolsorg. All of that information is there, as well as documents that she was referring to as she was describing our proposed budget this year. So you know we want everybody to be as informed about the budget before they go to vote and we hope to get your support next week on Tuesday as you vote for the upcoming school year budget. Is there anything else you want to say in closing?

Speaker 2:

No, just get out and vote. You know, get out and vote. It's very important and it has a huge impact on our students.

Speaker 1:

Wonderful. Thank you so much and I hope you tune in to future Husky Huddle episodes, where we'll continue to talk about things that impact our wonderful schools and students here in Olean. Thank you.