Even though schools have been going “above and beyond the call of duty,” the executive director of the Chautauqua County School Boards Association said area districts still face a plethora of problems in the coming months.

Raymond Fashano, retired superintendent of schools, pointed to a decrease in state support by $1.1 billion as well as a “threatened” 20% cut in state aid by state Gov. Andrew Cuomo to all school districts. “This money was intended to help students cover the costs associated with the COVID-19 virus crisis,” Fashano said in a news release. “It was instead used by New York State to help remedy their budget problems.”

County districts, Fashano said, are at the greatest risk of harm with these cuts as many of the 18 districts have high poverty levels. “This reduction by a straight 20% would be almost 10 times more devasting to our local school districts than downstate richer districts,” he said. “No matter how such a reduction is distributed it needs to be adjusted for low-wealth, high risk school districts such as those of Chautauqua County. This simply is not fair to our local school districts!”

In addition to these issues, Fashano noted COVID-related expenses that have been absorbed by local schools Transportation aid, he said, is not being paid from the state from mid-March to the end of June when the pandemic was in the early stages. Also cited was the purchase of masks, signage for social distancing, hand sanitizer, disinfecting and cleaning of the buildings, staggered work and school schedules and technology costs so the students had a computer device that could be used for learning has also cost districts hundreds of thousands of dollars. These expenses came during the summer before schools reopened — whether remotely or in a hybrid model.

“All districts will face dire revenue shortfalls in the coming years,” Fashano said. “Mid-year state aid shortfalls are especially painful because it usually leads to staff reductions.”

In the meantime, teacher retirements are happening in staggering numbers. New York state reported that in August, 572 teachers retired, 121% increase compared to 2019.

The state also reports that from April to August, 6,054 teachers filed retirement papers with the Teachers’ Retirement System, excluding New York City.

“I ask that everyone please have some compassion for our school staffs who are working under extraordinary conditions to educate our children,” Fashano said. “School administrations and school boards members are also doing their best to make the correct decisions to educate our children in these extraordinary times.

“Let us all understand that revenues for school districts will be scarce in the coming year. Let us all hope that a vaccine is developed, distributed so we can all return to some sort of school normalcy.”