WPCNR SCHOOL  DAYS. By John F. Bailey. May 10, 2007: White Plains residents got a surprise

 when they received the  School Budget Vote and Board of Education Election Notice yesterday. The

  formal notice mailed to residents required by state law shows information previously sent to voters in

its newsletter on the budget was not true.

State Required School Budget Election Notice which arrived in mailboxes yesterday across

White Plains shows Newsletter (below) mailed three weeks ago is in error.

Newsletter Proclaiming Proposed Budget was less than a Contingency Budget. It arrived in

 mailboxes two weeks ago.

Budget voters had been lead to believe the $174.1 Million Budget was $300,000 less than the

Contingency Budget calculated by  the District one month ago and publicized as being a result of the

state legislature’s largesse and  accounting shift, when they open the Election Notice will find the 2007-

2008 budget  $174.1 Million,  while the Contingency Budget – publicized by the School District three

weeks ago as $174.4 Million –  is now officially $173.6 Million. This means that if the voters reject the

budget next Tuesday the district  will have to adopt a budget $400,000 less.

In the Budget newsletter promoting the budget as “District Presents Lowest Budget Increase in

Southern Westchester County,” on page 2, in the column, “An Important Message from the Board of

Education,” there is a paragraph entitled the Bottom Line which reads:

The Bottom Line: Vote on May 15. The budget-to-budget increase is relatively low – lower, in fact,

than the so-called “contingency budget” that the Board could adopt if the budget were voted down...

WPCNR asked Fred Seiler, Assistant Superintendent for Business why the Contingency Budget

figured by the district last month ($174.4M) had shrunk $729,884 to $173,670,116.

Seiler said that in figuring the contingency budget, the district is required by law to remove costs of any

new equipment,  which he said accounted for the $729,884 reduction. Seiler explained that when the

$174.4 Million figure was announced to the school board, it was the computation of what the state by

its own formula would set for ther district as the Contingentcy Budget.

WPCNR asked  if it was known at the time the school district would have to remove new equipment

from the $174.4 possible Contingency Budget. Seiler said, “Correct.”  He said that if the budget were

rejected by voters next Tuesday, May 15, the Board of Education would have the option of putting new

equipment back in, or cutting other items, or going back out to the voters for another vote. If they stayed

with the Contingency Budget, he said, the district could reconfigure the expenditures in a different

spending allocation, as long as the district did not exceed the $173,670,116 figure.