POUGHKEEPSIE – A myriad of budget woes are going to have a significant impact on the Poughkeepsie City School District (PCSD), including a potential 3.9 percent tax increase for the upcoming budget. The original workup of the budget called for a 4.9 percent tax increase.
District Superintendent Dr. Eric Rosser and William Hogan, the PCSD interim chief operations officer gave an update on the budget issues to the school board late last week that include major staff cuts, possible elimination of the district’s alternative high school, and cutting interscholastic sports, including the basketball team that recently won the state championship.
One reason for the district’s fiscal crisis is because the current budget was underestimated by approximately $3 million, according to Rosser. Coupled with a $1.5 million reduction in state funding and the loss of grant funding that has covered the salaries of four elementary school principals in the amount of $580,000, the financial forecast is not promising for the district.
District leaders have laid partial blame for the crisis on the teachers and staff of the district, claiming that upcoming contractual salary increases are going to cost the district an additional $1.1 million.
Of the cuts proposed by Rosser, 33 teacher positions will be eliminated along with 11 administrators. Two of the administrators are the principal and assistant principal for PACE, the district’s alternative high school. School district spokesperson Irwin Goldberg said, “One such impact would be the proposal to discontinue the district-sponsored alternative program. While under this scenario we would eliminate our alternative education program known as PACE, we are not eliminating the service it provides.” Goldberg added, “We have identified alternatives to address the loss of district-sponsored programming. One such alternative is the Dutchess BOCES Alternative High School on Dutchess Turnpike.” The BOCES school referred to is the BETA school operated by BOCES.
