As school districts across New York head toward May budget votes, rising utility costs are adding new pressure to already strained finances.
How are districts managing the rising costs, and what are some solutions that may be helping?
From the classroom to the boiler room school, hard choices will have to made.
“Maybe one of those choices means we have to pull some funds out of this area here in the instructional area,” says David Albert, chief communications and marketing officer for the New York State School Boards Association. “So that we can meet these energy costs over here in this area.”
Albert said that tradeoff between classrooms and keeping the lights on is becoming more real as utility costs surge.
“Even though utility costs may not comprise a large percentage of a school district budget,” says Albert. “They do have an impact on budgets when they increase because there’s limited funding available for school districts.”
Educators like the North Syracuse Central School District say their expenses are outpacing revenue, driven in part by five years of inflation and limits on how much they can raise taxes.
Don Keegan is the associate superintendent for business services at North Syracuse Central School District.
“Our board, our superintendent and our cabinet are all working on our budget,” said Keegan. “And it’s a challenging year for us.”
The numbers behind utilities are staggering, according to Suzanne Slack, the assistant superintendent for administration at OCM Boces.
“Back in October, the prices were about, I’m going to give a round number, about 6 cents a kilowatt hour,” says Slack.
Slack says that 6 cents per kilowatt hour rate rose to 23 cents per kilowatt hour in February. That’s nearly a fourfold increase in six months.
“Nobody,” says Slack, “can accommodate increases like that.”
“Our revenues are not growing at the same rate as our expenses,” adds Keegan.
But there is a potential path forward.
One tool is NYSMEC, the New York school’s municipal energy consortium managed by OCM BOCES.
“It’s like $66 million a year that we pay in their utility bills,” says Slack.
By pooling nearly 200 schools and municipalities together, NYSMEC locks in lower rates for three years. There’s also a push to reduce usage altogether.
“If we can help them on the consumption side and reducing waste,” says Slack. “That will be the biggest benefit to them.”
“We spent about $5 million going through our buildings,” says Keegan. “To make sure the system’s functioning optimally.”
School budget votes are just weeks away, and as districts balance rising costs and protecting the classroom, they are hoping solutions like energy consortiums can help soften budget blows.
Other school districts that don’t utilize New York Schools Municipal Energy Consortium have similar municipal or bulk buying practices. Once NYSMEC current contract ends, their negotiated rates will increase. School budget votes across New York state take place Tuesday, May 19.