The City School District of Albany Board of Education unanimously approved a 2023-24 budget proposal on April 6 that would not raise taxes and would support all current programs and services, including those added during the pandemic, following the state’s fulfillment of its promise to fully fund all schools statewide.
The $307.3 million budget proposal that voters will consider May 16 includes $16.4 million in additional state aid. This is the final year of the state’s three-year plan to phase-in full Foundation Aid – the main revenue school districts use to support programs and services for students.
The budget proposal has no tax-levy increase for the third time in the last eight years.
The district’s average tax-levy increase over the past decade is less than 1% – 0.9% – as the Board of Education and district balance a multi-year plan to meet student needs while minimizing the impact on taxpayers.
You can download the budget presentation from the board's meeting Thursday for additional details.
An equity promise fulfilled
In the 2021-22 school year, the district received only 78% of the Foundation Aid it was owed according to the state’s school funding formula. Now funded at 100% for 2023-24, that represents a total gap of more than $40 million in annual revenue that the state has made up for Albany’s public schools over the past three years in its commitment to funding equity for school districts statewide.
With those increases, the 2023-24 budget proposal also marks the first time that state aid has accounted for more than half of the district’s revenue (52%, compared to 42% in the 2016-17 school year). The local taxpayers’ share has decreased during that time from 49% to 40%.
In addition to the budget proposal May 16, voters also will be asked to consider Proposition #2 (slides 21-25 in the April 6 board presentation). This proposal would allow the district to invest $9 million from its Capital Reserve Fund to offset inflationary cost increases in the Rebuilding Albany High School construction project. This proposal would have no additional impact on taxes.
Two board seats also are up for election May 16. The terms of Vice President Anne Savage and member Damarise Mann expire at the end of June. Both are seeking re-election.
Avoiding the ‘fiscal cliff’
The state’s timing with its commitment to fully funding Foundation Aid is ideal as school districts enter the final year with one-time federal COVID-19 relief funds available.
Without the state’s commitment to fiscal equity in public education, many districts, including Albany, could have been facing a fiscal cliff a year from now as the federal pandemic relief funds expire.
The Foundation Aid increase for 2023-24 will allow the district to transfer 73 current positions from one-time federal American Rescue Plan funding to the general fund. This maintains investments in staffing that the district made during the pandemic to increase support for students’ academic, social-emotional and mental health needs.
The budget proposal also would support 21.1 new positions. That includes 7.5 new teachers at North Albany Middle School to accommodate the second year of the three-year phase-in of the middle school enrollment pattern approved in 2022.
The district anticipates an increase of about $2.1 million in payments to charter schools in 2023-24, with a projected increase from $38.3 million in the current school year to $40.4 million.
The district also is supporting the budget proposal with about $4.1 million from reserves.
