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Ask the Superintendent - April 18, 2007
A few months ago I clearly remember sharing my
thoughts in this column about the lack of a real
winter. At that point, the weather had been atypical
with mild temperatures and little if any snow.
Within a week temperatures dropped into single
digits and we had a series of snowstorms. That
certainly taught me a lesson because here it is
April 15th, and we are in the middle of a classic
Nor’easter with heavy wind driven rain. Looking out
the window I see with a sense of amazement 2+ inches
of some assortment of frozen precipitation covering
the Spring flowers. Although this will turn out to
be a milder winter overall, we have seen most of
winter’s action, like a good football game, in the
second half.
A few weeks ago in my column, I was lamenting (a
kinder more gentle word I now use instead of
whining) about the lack of progress in Albany
between the Governor and Legislature as they battled
to complete the fiscal budget for next year. The
State Budget is a critical component in a school
districts’ attempt to craft its own budget. As we
closed in on our deadline to complete the school
budget, we were still unsure of a State Aid
projection, which successfully eluded us at every
turn. There was no way we could “pin down” our
potential State Aid figure because it kept changing.
In keeping with the theme of this article, I owe the
Governor and our two Legislative officials from the
Senate and the Assembly, an apology because one day
before my last column appeared in The Goshen
Independent the “State Aid Run” arrived in my
office. Although the calculations are still somewhat
fluid, it is clearly apparent the Goshen Central
School District will receive a substantial increase
in aid. A big thank you is also in order. I should
have realized this was about to happen based upon
the lesson I learned when I complained about the
weather. That aid figure has now been factored into
the revenue portion of our proposed budget and will
be presented to the Board of Education on Monday,
April 16th.
In the next few weeks I will be sharing various
aspects of the 2007/08 school budget, which will be
voted upon by district residents, on Tuesday, May
15th.
Roy Reese
Superintendent of Schools
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