Schools

Chappaqua School Budget to Cut 33 Jobs, Increase Spending by 1.78%

Budget to be presented Tuesday night at school board meeting.

Major job cuts are planned for the proposed 2011-12 preliminary budget for the Chappaqua Central School District.

The budget, which will officially be presented a Tuesday night's school board meeting - to be held at the auditorium at 8:15 p.m. - calls for cuts of 33 positions, both full time and part time. This includes 18.2 teaching positions.

Overall, the proposed budget is $111,338,488, a spending increase of 1.78 percent from the 2010-11 budget, which was $109,391,348.

Find out what's happening in Chappaqua-Mount Kiscowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

With rising costs, including an increase of more than $2 million in employee benefits, the district would have faced a spending increase of 6.61 percent ($7,233,407) just to maintain current funding levels. The district states in its summary of the budget that almost $5.3 million is savings will be attained through the job cuts (by $2.4 million), with the recent renegotiation of the current contract with the Chappaqua Congree of Teachers (CCT) producing savings of $1.1 million. Overall "personnel reduction" savings are $4.2 million. An additional $1.1 million in non-employee savings is cited in the budget summary.

The budget also calls for modest increases in class sizes in most sections offered, with some exceptions. See the accompanying charts for the full details.

Find out what's happening in Chappaqua-Mount Kiscowith free, real-time updates from Patch.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here