By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – The budget agreement reached earlier this week between the two houses of the State Legislature includes an increase in school aid of $1.1 billion. That represents a record 6.9 percent increase.
But Buffalo Schools Superintendent James Williams says despite more state aid to the city schools, it is still not enough. Williams says he is faced with a $4- to $6 million budget deficit. He told reporters Thursday morning that he has no idea how much the city school district will be receiving, but that it won't be enough to keep the district out of the red in the future.
Williams says without union concessions, major cuts would occur.
"There are going to be major layoffs. You can't go into a new fiscal year without balancing the books," Williams said. "We have to get single health care. That's a savings of $13 million. Then we need to look at overtime and some of the money we spend on substitutes. We have to look at all of those things.
"We have to change the structure. Every year, we have had to layoff employees when we received more state aid."
The district remains in arbitration with the school unions over a signal health insurance provider.