The Rochester Board of Education is facing another budget season with a looming shortfall — a gap nearly three times higher than a year ago.
Last year, under then-Superintendent Carmine Peluso, the projected gap was $14 million. This time it’s $38 million. Part of the difference is that there are no longer any pandemic relief dollars.
Current interim Superintendent Demario Strickland is expected to release his budget proposal in January, after Gov. Kathy Hochul presents her budget and education funding plan. Strickland said staff pay increases are inflating RCSD’s expenses – with compensation rising between 3% and 4%.
“So right off the bat, as well as increases in healthcare, when you put all those things combined, we're already $38 million in the hole,” Strickland said.
In the 2022-23 school year, the school board approved a three-year contract with the teachers union. Then in August of this year, the board approved a new contract with the non-teaching staff union BENTE.
For board member Amy Maloy the rising budget shortfalls sound all too familiar.
“Within a few years, we could be in the same shape that we were when I first came onto the board,” Maloy said. “I was elected in 2019 and the district had just cut many positions.”
In 2019, Terry Dade was the superintendent, and the district was facing a nearly $65 million deficit. About 155 staffers were laid off.
“Obviously, I'm really concerned and want to make sure that we're moving in a direction that allows us to develop a sustainable model,” Maloy said. “We're going to have to make some really difficult decisions.”
But school board members have differing views on how the district should go about balancing the books, and where cuts should happen.
“I think the schools should be left alone,” Commissioner James Patterson said. “If anything, we need more psychologists and counselors and social workers, you know, with what we're dealing with in our communities.”
Patterson said high-paying administrative positions in Central Office need to be scrutinized, a sentiment echoed by board member Jacqueline Griffin. Patterson added in an impassioned out-of-turn outburst that the cost of a back-office software system called Oracle needs to be reviewed as well.
“I would like the public to know when it came to Oracle, the investments that we had went over, over and beyond,” Patterson shouted over objections. “The budget increased and timed implementation of the project increased.”
Board President Cynthia Elliott said earlier in the meeting that Oracle is a worthwhile investment.
“While it is expensive, over the long run it is going to be the most efficient system that we're having,” Elliott said. “Because right now, our systems are inefficient. Payroll is one place. HR is one place."
When it comes to making cuts on the administrative level, Elliott said it won’t bridge the gap because the bulk of the budget goes to non-administrative staff and union workers.
“The fact of the matter is, we will have to get into the schools,” she said. “There's more teachers and others versus administrators, that line is much bigger, and so you got to cut this.”
The board also is looking ahead to possible large-scale changes to federal education funding when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
School board vice president Beatriz LeBron said district leaders will need to have a contingency plan beyond the current budget process.
“The little bit of money that we do have, it goes very fast if we know we're going to be taking hits from the federal government over the next four years,” LeBron said. “And so I definitely want us to not just make cuts, but start looking at how we can save and buffer ourselves to have the least amount of harmful impact coming from the feds to the state to us.”
While Trump distanced himself from a far-right policy agenda called Project 2025 during his campaign, he’s nominated contributors of that playbook to his administration.
Brookings Institute, a nonprofit research organization, says some aspects of the project are unlikely to gain popular support in Congress — like abolishing the Department of Education, which Trump vowed to do during his campaign.
That would take Congressional approval, including a supermajority of the Senate.
The Education Department, among many things, oversees public school funding, including Title I grants that support districts like RCSD that have a high percentage of low-income students. Project 2025 proposes sunsetting those Title 1 funds.
Elliott remains optimistic.
“I want you all to be encouraged,” she said. “I don't care what we have going on in Washington. ... I know that with hard work and creativity, we can make sure that our children continue to exceed academically in this country.”
