Ellen Yousey, a retired teaching assistant and Saranac Lake Teacher’s Association member, speaks at the district’s budget hearing on Wednesday. Yousey suggested creating a capital reserve account for health insurance, an idea the district administration is investigating. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake Central School District held a sparsely populated public hearing on its $38.1 million proposed budget Wednesday, discussing the district’s enrollment decline crisis and its impact on all aspects of the school.

There were only 10 people in the audience — all school employees and one reporter — with a handful tuning in online.

The SLCSD Board of Education unanimously adopted the budget last month. Now, the budget will go to the public for a final vote on May 20. The election and budget vote will be held in the auditorium lobby of the high school in door No. 5 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The budget would levy $25,577,281 in taxes, meet the 4.44% tax levy increase cap, carry some staff layoffs and account for potential federal aid cuts.

The tax levy makes up 68% of the district’s revenue, state and federal aid make up 27%, money from the district reserves makes up 4% and a fractional 1% comes from other sources.

Though the tax levy has gone up each year, the tax rate per $1,000 of assessed value has decreased by almost $2 over the past five years.

Last year, the district eliminated five and a half full-time equivalent positions and one aide position. This year, the budget calls to eliminate 18 full-time equivalent positions.

SLCSD Superintendent Diane Fox said they are eliminating around 11 positions through attrition — nine from retirements and two from resignations. Because other staff are shifting into new roles, the reductions will result in three potential layoffs. These three positions are an elementary educator, a special educator and a reading specialist.

These cuts maintain the district’s one-to-seven staff-to-student ratio, she said, and the exact numbers are still shifting.

Fox said the budget continues to put money into the district reserves, even during a financial crisis, because they need to save money for electric buses, which are expected to be required in a couple of years. She also said she doesn’t anticipate having many leftover funds from this budget to put into reserves next year. The district had coronavirus pandemic-era grants which ran out this year, and has been tucking away money from these into the reserves, but the district’s budget has been getting tighter.

Fox said this budget was created based on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget proposal from January, because, as of Wednesday night, the state still had not passed its budget — more than a month past the deadline. Based on this, SLCSD is expecting $120,000 more in state aid than last year.

Fox’s salary gets a $6,000 increase in this budget, bringing it to $183,032. Fox said this is standard for a superintendent’s raise after 12 years in the position.

To read more about the details of the adopted budget, go to tinyurl.com/52rutcuw.

To read more about the budget specifics on the district website, go to tinyurl.com/53haf7mu.

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Reality check

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Fox gave the audience a “reality check,” sounding the alarm about the major drop in enrollment the district has seen and expects to continue seeing.

In 1995, the district had 1,910 students. This year it was 1,037. In 30 years, the district has lost 873 students, a 46% drop.

Next year, student enrollment is projected to drop to 1,012. The year after that, it’s projected to drop out of four-digit territory to 965.

The main reason is that the district is graduating more seniors than it is accepting new kindergartners. The district’s projection for next year is to have 87 students graduate and have 60 incoming kindergartners. Right now, Fox said they only have 45 kindergartners enrolled, and they are unlikely to hit 60.

The enrollment decline impacts everything, Fox said — staffing, educational programming and financials. Districts with fewer pupils get less state aid. Though they’ve got fewer students, they have the same building costs as before. And with fewer students, it’s harder to justify full-time positions in specialized areas.

Fox said the enrollment decline comes from a lack of young people, a lack of available, affordable housing and a lack of financial security

The district has an older population — with 20% of its population being school-aged. It has more people who are over 65 than people under 18.

Fox said the area does not really have a housing crisis — it’s a housing availability and affordability crisis.

Though there are 7,670 housing units in the district, only 67% of them are occupied. The other 33% are second homes, family summer homes, vacation rentals or vacant.

In the district, 14% of people live below the poverty line — less than the rest of Franklin County but average for New York. Children experience a higher rate of poverty — with 18% living below the poverty line in SLCSD.

The majority of single-parent families in the district are below the ALICE line. ALICE is an acronym from United Way standing for “asset limited, income constrained, employed.” It is higher than the federal poverty level, but lower than the basic cost of living. Fox said it represents families that are one large expense away from a financial crisis.

While around 20% of two-parent families in Franklin and Essex counties are below the ALICE line, single-parent families experience it much more — 78% for female-headed households and 68% for male-headed households.

The median household income for the district is $69,258 — 30% higher than the rest of Franklin County, but only 80% of the state average.

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Propositions and election

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The first proposition on the ballot, if approved, would authorize the district to spend up to $324,000 from its Transportation Reserve Fund to purchase two buses.

The next two propositions would continue the district’s capital reserve funds for transportation and capital improvements. These would not put additional money into the funds, but would allow them to continue since the funds have a 10-year lifespan.

There is currently $1,848,232 in the transportation fund and $1,970,648 in the capital improvement fund.

The transportation fund is what the district pulls from to purchase the buses in Prop. 1, as well as other transportation needs. The capital improvement fund is used for things like construction, technology, equipment, fields, infrastructure and parking lots.

These reserves are partially funded by leftover money from each year’s budget.

The final proposition would authorize the district to levy a $532,370 tax to fund the Saranac Lake Free Library. School districts collect tax money for public libraries.

There will also be two school board seats up for election on the ballot on May 20. The seats are for Chair Mark Farmer and member Zach Randolph’s positions. They are both running for reelection and are unopposed.