April 17, 2019

A provision in the recently enacted state budget requires that all employers, including school districts, provide up to three hours of paid leave to employees to vote in non-district elections. This unwelcome change has provoked many questions and concerns from district leaders, who will need to implement this for the first time in conjunction with the June consolidated primary (unless there is a special election called before then).

NYSSBA Governmental Relations is continuing to pursue legislative and regulatory actions that might provide better understanding of what this means, as well as to roll back some of the worst implications of this change.

April 16, 2019

Dear NYSSBA Member:

Below you will find a link to NYSSBA's 2019 Resolution Kit. This kit includes key dates and other important information about NYSSBA's resolutions process.  

• 2019 Resolution Kit

April 11, 2019

NYSSBA Governmental Relations has completed the update to the district-by district state aid database to incorporate information about the 2019-20 final budget. To see where your district stands against the statutory formula, on a district-wide and per pupil basis, look up your district's information, as well as helpful information on state aid below.

• NYSSBA 2019-20 Final Aid Database
• State Aid: What School Board Members Should Know

April 5, 2019

Yesterday, the NYSSBA Governmental Relations team conducted a webinar to present their analysis of the 2019 State Budget and to answer questions.

If you were unable to view the webinar live, you may view it at any time at the link below.

April 2, 2019

NYSSBA has compiled an analysis of the key points and appropriations included in and excluded from the final budget.

Join NYSSBA's Governmental Relations team on Thursday April 4^th at 12:00pm to discuss this analysis and hear what is in (and out of) the 2019 State Budget and have your questions answered. Registration can be accessed below:

• NYSSBA Final Budget Analysis
• Webinar Registration

April 1, 2019

2019 State Budget Details Emerge

Last night and into the early morning, the Houses acted upon a number of bills making up the bulk of the 2019 State Budget. Many of the proposals were not available fore review until late Sunday afternoon. Full analysis is underway, but some key components of interest to school districts include:

March 31, 2019

Last night, just after midnight, Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders announced that they had come to an agreement on a final budget.

Details were scarce in the announcement, but we did learn that the final arrangement includes:

March 30, 2019

Yesterday afternoon, Governor Andrew Cuomo held a press event to provide an update on 2019 budget negotiations in advance of the weekend. Over the course of the event, 3 issues of significant interest to NYSSBA members were discussed.  

First, the Governor indicated that his proposal to redistribute Foundation Aid among school buildings, dubbed "equity" plans, is still very much under discussion. His comments suggested that he still believes that some version of this plan will be in the final budget.  

March 27, 2019

With just over four days remaining before the start of the state fiscal year, state legislators and Governor Cuomo continue to work on the state budget. This morning, the Joint Education Subcommittee met and announced some areas of consensus in the budget bill.

The parties have agreed to allow school districts to enter into "piggyback" contracts for transportation services. This NYSSBA supported mandate relief proposal will allow districts to share services at any point in the contract of the initiating district.

In addition, the parties have agreed to changes to the schedule of building condition surveys, and have come to an agreement about operating aid for the State Education Department. The amount and purpose of that aid was not made available.

March 19, 2019

Following the release of the Legislative budget proposals last week, the Governmental Relations team is advocating for NYSSBA's budget priorities, including:

• Significantly increasing Foundation Aid over the Executive proposal
• Rejection of the proposed school-based funding redistribution plan
• Rejection of the proposed consolidation of reimbursement aids into a block grant, or "services aid"
• Rejection of the proposed reduction in building aid reimbursement rates
• Rejecting a permanent tax cap or any extension until common sense adjustments are made
• Updating the BOCES District Superintendent salary cap
• Increasing the cap on aidable BOCES CTE salaries and special services aid for non-component districts
• Establishing a renewed period of building aid and transportation aid forgiveness
• Authorizing the creation of a TRS reserve fund
• Repealing the building level budget reports adopted last year, as proposed by the Senate
• Making prekindergarten transportation aidable, as proposed by the Assembly
• Making space for health, mental health and dental health building aid eligible, as proposed by the Assembly
• Making school bus stop arm cameras transportation aidable, as proposed by the Senate.