Email: "Westfield School Officials Updated On Possible Aid Cuts"
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WESTFIELD – Things could get pretty scary if the state enacts mid-year aid cuts.


So scary that some districts could see massive increases – some around 9 percent - to their tax levies.


However, there may still be hope.


Westfield Academy and Central School Superintendent Mark Sissel, at a recent Board of Education meeting, said he recently attended a state-wide school finance meeting where talk of reduced aid and rising tax levies was the main event.


“It’s an ‘if’ and ‘when’ type of situation,” Sissel told board members.


After hearing from Dr. Rick Timbs, executive director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium, Sissel said Governor Paterson’s proposed Gap Elimination Adjustment Plan will affect poorer districts more than their wealthier counterparts.


According to a handout provided to board members by Sissel, wealthier districts in the state will have the smallest increase to their tax levies if the Governor’s plan is approved. Meanwhile, less wealthy districts – such as Westfield - will be most affected.


“This is totally inequitable,” the handout said. “The poorest districts, those least able to pay higher taxes and already struggling to maintain educational programs, will be required to have the largest percent levy increases if the Gap Elimination Plan offered by the Governor is put into place. This is unacceptable, inequitable and wrong.”


If aid cuts are enacted, school officials have said Westfield would lose $205,039 in aid. However, members of the board’s audit committee have been discussing ways of combating a possible aid cuts including freezing spending and making sure all school purchases are absolutely necessary.


“We at least have some ideas of what we’ll do if it comes to pass,” Mark Winslow, a board member and member of the audit committee, said.


Sissel said Timbs urged districts to voice their displeasure with the plan.


“What (Timbs) is saying … is come up with a priority list first,” he said. “Prioritize, get out there and talk to legislators. Let them know this isn’t equitable. He’s saying we need to educate the community.”


Sissel said school officials need to be aware of what may happen to the district.


“This is not to scare people,” he said. “This is for us to be aware of, for use to be prepared. It’s sounding an alarm.”


Also at the meeting, Sissel and Marie Edwards, board president, said they had met with officials from Ripley and Chautauqua Lake Central Schools to discuss sharing academic programs. Mrs. Edwards said representatives from each district believe sharing programs will benefit students.


“It was very interesting, a very positive meeting,” Mrs. Edwards said.


However, if approved, Mrs. Edwards said parents and students would have a choice about participating.


“You don’t have to do this,” she said.


Board members are expected to vote on a resolution allowing school officials to continue to discuss and look into sharing academic programs by the end of November, Mrs. Edwards and Sissel said.


“The resolution would just be permission to work on the agreement … and hammer out the issues,” Sissel said.


The district also plans on holding a H1N1 clinic for students sometime in January, Sissel said, adding the Chautauqua County Health Department has asked the district if it would hold a public clinic as well.


“There’s all kinds of details that need to be done with a possible two day clinic here,” Sissel said.


Meanwhile, Sissel said the district is tracking student and staff attendance, adding the number of students being sent home with flu-like symptoms has dropped.


“We were almost running a quarantine at the nurse’s station,’ Sissel said.


The district’s absentee rate, Sissel said, is near 10 percent. Meanwhile, he said other districts are near 30 percent.


Sissel urged those who feel to sick to stay home and not come to school.

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