Syracuse city school officials can expect to see a loss of nearly 100 jobs if the school budget passes, said Board of Education members during the first of two public budget hearings Monday night.

The board convened in the Syracuse City School District boardroom at 5:30 p.m. to present the 2013-2014 budget and open the floor to questions from the public. Suzanne Slack, chief financial officer for the district, presented the projected state budget and outlined how it will affect the city of Syracuse.

Slack pointed out that the state budget, which will be presented on March 21, has a direct effect on Syracuse schools in terms of funding. Approximately 77 percent, or 77.5 cents of every dollar that comes into the district, is from state aid, she said.

“We are very reliant on state aid,” Slack said. “Any change in state aid funding has a very significant impact on us because we don’t rely heavily on property taxes or other sources of revenue.”

But Stephen Swift, president of the board, said state funds are not enough to solve all of the district’s problems, particularly the issue of teacher cuts.

The division of state funds is unfair to poorer districts such as Syracuse, Swift said, and there is a real need for education reform at the state level.

“We’ve cut probably 25 percent of our staff over the past few years,” he said. “We’re getting down to the point where you can’t cut a whole lot more.”

If the board approves the local budget on April 10, 95.7 jobs will be eliminated. Because of retirement or already vacant positions, the district will likely see 63 layoffs in total by July 2013, including 22 teachers.

Sharon Owens, the mother of an eighth-grade student with special needs, voiced her concerns about how these budget cuts will affect special education teachers.

“My son is at a position where he is going to be preparing to go on to high school,” she said. “He has an excellent core of teachers, special ed teachers, so I’m interested in how many of that proposed cut will include that population.”

School Superintendent Sharon Contreras said cuts to teaching positions were kept at a minimum. Ten percent of administrators were cut in the proposed budget, as opposed to 2 percent of teaching positions, she said.

“Teachers are the heart of education, so we try to stay as far away from the classroom as possible. That’s why most of the cuts were at the administrative level,” she said. “But we’re getting to the point where there’s nowhere else to cut and we certainly don’t want to reduce direct services to students.”

Despite the potential cuts to district jobs, the newest budget does propose a more stringent process for hiring new teachers.

The board is proposing what Slack called a “bar exam for teachers,” which is a part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget proposal. This stricter set of requirements for incoming educators would increase the difficulty of the teacher certification exam, and require prospective employees to spend more time in the classroom as student teachers.

The proposal would also affect the Annual Professional Performance Review, a teacher evaluation tool. If the APPR is not strictly implemented, the district could be at risk of losing funds from the state, Slack said.

But for Contreras, a higher standard for teachers is an important aspect of the new budget.

Said Contreras: “It is a very important exercise to us, making sure we run effective buildings and efficient buildings.”

Published on February 25, 2013 at 10:56 pm

Contact Avery: avhartma@syr.edu | @averyhartmans