Due to an imminent reduction in state aid, the Warwick Valley Central School District must find a way to slash at least $2 million from the school budget for 2009-10

Finding ways to cut spending, while keeping
the priorities of first students, then taxpayers, then staff

What are some of the cost-saving options besides going to two-tier busing?

The Board of Education and the Superintendent of Warwick schools find themselves in the unenviable position of having to find ways of significantly cutting costs now and for the foreseeable future while continuing to provide an excellent education for students.

Superintendent Greenhall has stated that his priorities as a longtime educator have always been:
1. students, 2. taxpayers and 3. staff. No matter how dire the financial circumstances are or become, schools are in the business of educating students, and that must take precedent. Taxpayers cannot
be asked to bankrupt themselves to provide that education. And an education can only be as good as the staff.

There have been a number of cost-saving measures discussed that Superintendent Greenhall will not consider at this time. If these methods involve breaking longstanding commitments or hurting the educational environment, Dr. Greenhall has stated that, “my own philosophical stance” will not allow him to move forward on these ideas.

Some of the suggested cost-saving ideas include, but
are not limited to:

Cut the extracurricular programs in our schools. Stop the sports, clubs and all the “extras”.

Studies on student performance consistently show that the more that students are involved in extracurricular activities, the better they do academically. It has been demonstrated that those involved in the arts perform better in math, science and foreign languages. Proof exists that the time that has the greatest potential for young people to get in trouble is from school dismissal until 8 p.m. Not having constructive activities after school would feed directly into these issues.

Many students come to school and do well academically because they want to participate in extracurriculars. During the 2007-08 school year, all but one of Warwick’s varsity athletic teams earned the distinction from New York State as Scholar-Athlete teams. Warwick’s music program has won many individual and group awards and is recognized, as is the athletic program, far beyond the boundaries of our district. Those who attend any drama/theater production from the elementary level through the high school walk away amazed. Each activity allows students to stretch themselves physically and mentally and teaches them concepts such as working together as a team. “These activities,” says Dr. Greenhall, “are the carrots that encourage students to become involved, be part of a team and give back to the community.”

The negative impact of cutting all extracurricular activities goes against Dr. Greenhall’s first priority (students) as an educator, and he therefore can not recommend this option as a cost saving measure. “The compromise is to improve what currently exists,” says Dr. Greenhall, “rather than having a random expansion of programs based on whim. It is better to make sure that what you have has what it needs before you move on to something new.”

Save the taxpayers money by contracting out the entire transportation system and stop coming back every year for new school buses.

The Warwick Valley Central School District has always supported local drivers driving district students and still does. Contrary to some of what has recently been written in local newspapers, it is not the Superintendent’s recommendation to contract out transportation services. Warwick currently has a “hybrid” transportation system – using district drivers and buses to transport the vast majority of students, but also contracting many bus runs for special needs students, private school runs and whenever there aren’t enough district drivers available to handle field/sport trips.

The problem with letting a district’s entire transportation department go to privatization, according to Dr. Greenhall, is that the district no longer has the leverage to keep costs down. And, once a district lets its fleet of buses go, he says, then any attempt to return to a district-owned system becomes an extremely expensive venture.

While it is true that taxpayers are asked yearly to approve purchases of new buses, this is done on a schedule that maximizes the trade-in value of buses and minimizes district exposure to expensive repairs. By doing this and taking advantage of transportation aid from the state, the district gets the ‘best bang for the buck’ in the area of buses. The current “hybrid” transportation in place in Warwick presents the best option for the school district.

Merge the Pine Island Elementary School with another elementary school. We’ll save on heat, electricity, maintenance and staff.

“It is my understanding,” says Dr. Greenhall, “that when the Warwick Valley Central School District took on the Pine Island School District, a commitment was made to the Pine Island community to maintain their neighborhood school at the elementary level.” In fact, a review of the history of Warwick shows that the Pine Island school was incorporated from several one-room schools into the Warwick Valley Central School District in 1926. Thus, the district long ago made a commitment to the neighborhood school concept.

According to Dr. Greenhall, closing the doors at Pine Island would have unintended and far-reaching results. While the smallest of schools within our educational environment, Pine Island Elementary more than serves its clientele in an excellent manor. The Pine Island neighborhood includes wide differences in its core foundation, ranging from families who rolled back the drowned swampland to uncover the rich black dirt beneath, to families who have recently moved to the area because of the culture of the community. The community members from Pine Island look to the school on top of the hill as a significant contributor to the vibrancy of the small hamlet of Pine Island.

The school has its own unique culture and pushes the concept of community to a great level. Pine Island Elementary School weaves into its overall curriculum a relationship to the agricultural community. The school has also a strong relationship with the local veterans, the historical society, chamber of commerce and the artists and musicians from the community and boasts a long line of alumni.

While true that such a move may have economic advantages, the long-term consequences in the community of Pine Island must be considered. In the early 1980s the Warwick school board examined the possibility of closing the elementary school, and the outcry from the community continues to vibrate to the present time. “For the same reasons I do not support cutting extracurricular activities – our kids – I could not support the closing of Pine Island Elementary School,” said Dr. Greenhall.

Some options for saving money might come at too great a cost

“There is little doubt that each of these three proposals could decrease expenses for the district,” Dr. Greenhall continued, “but when the benefits gained are weighted against the cost saved, I can not currently accept the temptation to take a quick-fix approach. There may come a time when the financial situation warrants consideration of these three additional cost-saving measures, but I,
for one, hope it will be long after my career comes to a close. Each of these options violates my own philosophical idea of what is important in education to maintain regardless of the times.”

First students, then taxpayers, then staff.