Dear Wildcat Community,
What an emotional budget season it has been. I could not be more proud of the community support and advocacy surrounding the devastating cuts the Governor enacted on small schools. The battle for equity in rural school education will be long fought.
In addition to rising costs, the Governor reduced the amount of state aid that is provided to over half the districts in New York State. Hancock being one of the hardest hit. To add insult to injury the State budget was almost 3 weeks late, which forced districts to plan their budget based on their best guess. Finally, on April 20, we received the information from the state that allowed us to finalize the budget numbers at the 11th hour.
This budget was created with the future in mind and protection of people and programs. Through careful planning and the use of shared services with Deposit, we are able to maintain programming for students while staying within our allowable tax levy.
If you are available and would like to hear more, please join me on May 13th at 7:00 to learn about the budget and the steps we’ll take to continue offering high quality opportunities to our students, families, and community.
I look forward to seeing you at some of our spring events!
With Wildcat Pride,
Lori Asquith
Superintendent