4 local schools on fiscal stress list

Two Dutchess County school districts are on the state's "fiscal stress" list for the first time, while another remains on the list for the third year in a row, according to a report from the state Comptroller's Office.

The Rhinebeck Central School District was among four in the state to see its "fiscal stress" score skyrocket over the past year. The district was deemed overall to have "moderate stress" with a score of 56.7 percent, slightly less than the Poughkeepsie City School District and the neighboring Ulster County's New Paltz district.

The Beacon City School District is listed as "susceptible" to fiscal stress, with a score of 28.3 percent.

90 school districts facings fiscal stress, DiNapoli says

Overall, 82 school districts were designated as fiscally stressed under Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s "Fiscal Stress Monitoring System," which was launched in 2013 as a way to monitor financial issues at the local level and identify potential issues.

Each district is given a score based on a variety of budgetary issues, including their year-end fund balances and operating deficits, according to the system guide. The higher the rating, the more significant the fiscal stress.

Eight New York school districts were found to have “significant fiscal stress;” there were 24 in “moderate fiscal stress” and 50 as “susceptible to fiscal stress,” numbers that DiNapoli said, via statement, have been essentially steady for the past three years.

The report had some positive news for some school districts, which are struggling with limited revenue, higher costs and a tax cap limit that will be near zero for the fiscal year that starts July 1. About 77 percent of school districts statewide were not in a fiscal stress category in any of the three years that the calculations have been made.

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In Rhinebeck, "we got overwhelmed with special education costs after the budget was already created and approved" in the summer of 2014, said Thomas Burnell, assistant superintendent for support services.

The district had an influx of students who enrolled who needed special education services, such as private school placement and Dutchess County Board of Cooperative Educational Services, Burnell said. That caused "a tremendous unanticipated cost, upwards of half a million dollars in additional unbudgeted expenses."

Rhinebeck had budgeted nearly $2.6 million of its $31 million budget in the 2014-15 year for special education but ended up spending more than $3 million, Burnell added. To pay for the cost, Rhinebeck cut its fund balance in half — from 4 percent of its total budget to 2 percent — in one year.

"This year will be a little different," Burnell said. "Because of the hit on our fund balance and additional expenses, our board is taking a hard look and we will have definite budget cuts...we just want to make sure we're covering the expenses of all our students."

The Poughkeepsie district is no stranger to financial difficulties. Some 86 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged and the district relies heavily on the state for aid.

"Recent reductions over the past several years have had a significantly negative impact on the district’s fiscal strength," officials said via statement. "The comptroller’s report confirms the district’s dependence upon state aid for its fiscal health and its need for support through this difficult economic environment."

Poughkeepsie's 2015 fiscal stress score was 58.3 percent — lower than it was in 2013, when the district was considered significantly stressed with a 71.7 percent score, but higher than it was in 2014, when it scored 50 percent.

In Beacon, the score increase "was the result of our unappropriated fund balance being less than the previous years," interim Superintendent Ann Marie Quartironi said via email. "The decrease of our fund balance is the result of the third year of the tax cap."

Beacon's unassigned fund balance was $2.4 million in 2014 and $1.8 million in 2015, according to the report.

"The district is not concerned with this decrease as Beacon still continues to maintain over $3.8 million in reserves," Quartironi said.

In New Paltz, a loss of state aid combined with the tax cap "has caused our district to deplete our fund balance in order to keep our programs intact without increasing class sizes dramatically," said Brian Cournoyer, school board president.

"It's the lack of fund balance, basically a reserve fund, that has caused the comptroller's office to designate us as fiscally stressed," Cournoyer added. In the current financial climate, it's impossible to build the fund balance back up "without gutting or educational program."

Gannett's Albany Bureau contributed to this report. Nina Schutzman: nschutzman@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-451-4518, Twitter: @pojonschutzman

Fiscal stress

Below are the local results for the state fiscal stress report.

Dutchess County

Arlington 0%

Beacon 28.3%

Dover 6.7%

Hyde Park 8.3%

Millbrook 0%

Pawling 0%

Pine Plains 20%

Poughkeepsie 58.3%

Red Hook 0%

Rhinebeck 56.7%

Spackenkill 6.7%

Wappingers 15%

Webutuck 6.7%

ULSTER COUNTY

Highland 8.3%

Marlboro 6.7%

New Paltz 58.3%