To the stakeholders of the Hoosick Falls Central School District (HFCSD),
It has been brought to our attention that some community members appear to have concerns regarding a recent hiring decision and how this relates to our budget and overall financial position. The Board of Education (Board) places the utmost importance on being fully transparent and accountable to the community. With this in mind, we believe it is important to engage with you on this topic in an effort to avoid confusion and ensure that the views of the Board are made clear.
Financial Position
We are sure most of you have heard about the recent financial issues impacting many local school districts. In our view, this is partly due to reduced state funding to varying degrees, but also in part due to, in some cases, poor budgeting practices and fiscal mismanagement. On behalf of the entire Board and district officials, I am pleased to report that HFCSD is indeed in a very sound financial condition. Our entire team has done an outstanding job of managing the needs of the district while keeping in mind the realities of high taxes in New York State and the financial burdens placed upon all of us. For instance:
The average annual HFCSD school tax increase over the past 1O years has been just 1.05%. The accumulated tax increases are far below the tax cap.
While budgeting is not fully completed for next year, we are currently targeting between a 1% and 1.25% tax increase, which is again below the tax cap.
Through attrition and sound, strategic hiring practices, we have been able to meet the ever increasing needs of our student population while keeping costs reasonable. Unlike other districts around us, we plan no layoffs or other actions detrimental to educating ALL our students.
Our reserve accounts are adequately funded to meet future unanticipated expenses in a variety of areas.
We continue to have an unqualified score on our financial audits, with no material deficiencies found, and a financial stress score of zero. Both of these scores are the best a school can achieve and indicate successful budgeting strategies and financial planning.
We are in the final stages of wrapping up our capital project and are pleased to report that we are on time and on budget. We know some in the community originally had reservations that the work would be completed as proposed. We hope we have earned your trust navigating the largest capital project in the history of the district since the building opened in 1961.
We would like to thank our School Business Administrator Emily Sanders and Superintendent Patrick Dailey (both of whom are also HFCSD taxpayers) for their extraordinary leadership in this area. Most importantly, we would like to thank the Hoosick Falls community for wholeheartedly supporting our school. Last year's budget passed with an amazingly high 79% approval rate. We hope you will continue to recognize our efforts and support us again this year and beyond.
Special Education Department & Hiring
There also seems to be some confusion or concern among a small group of residents centered around the recent hiring of our new Special Education Director. We believe it is important to share a few key points about our approach to hiring, especially for critical roles such as this.
Our main goal is to ensure every student gets the best education possible. This means sometimes we have to make decisions on hiring to get the best people in place quickly, especially when it's very hard to find qualified candidates. As many of you know, finding high quality educators is becoming extremely difficult.
Our absolutely amazing, long-time Special Education Director recently announced her plans for retirement. As a replacement, we chose someone we've known and trusted for years because of her exceptional skills and understanding of what our students need, her abundant experience with our staff and students, and close ties to our Hoosick Falls community. This choice is all about making sure our students have the support they need, especially with important roles like this.
Importantly, we are also thinking ahead. Knowing that our top special education leader will be retiring at the end of next year, we decided to bring in her replacement now. It was apparent that this person would not be available to us for long, much less a full year out from now. In this way, our new Director can learn all the ins and outs of the job from one of the absolute best. It's all about making sure our special education programs stay strong and our students keep getting the great support they deserve. In our view, this is a responsible, reasonable, fiscally sound approach.
Taking care of our special education needs is a very big job that requires a lot of know-how, not just in teaching but also in following the regulations to avoid costly mistakes. It takes a lot of resources to make sure our special education students get what they need, and it is important to have significant support for the person in charge to keep things running smoothly and to avoid problems. Our new Director was 100% unanimously supported by the relevant staff, school leadership team, and the Board. We are indeed fortunate to have her, and we welcome her back home.
We always follow the rules and appropriate laws when we hire. Our decisions are about doing what we believe is best for our students, our school, and our community, especially when it comes to the kids most in need of our love and care. If you hear otherwise, don't believe it.
We are grateful for your trust and always aim to be open and honest in our actions. Thank you for your ongoing support and engagement. Please reach out to Superintendent Dailey or a Board member if you have questions or concerns.
On behalf of the entire Hoosick Falls Central School Board of Education,
Joseph Patire, President