WCS District Considers Long-Term Finance Plan

Waterville Central School District plans to outline a long-term budget plan of five years.

After hearing Dr. Rick Timbs speak at a conference, WCS School Business Official Cynthia Amarosa asked him to come to Waterville.

Timbs, a former school superintendent who runs his own school consulting company, attended the meeting and outlined the advantages of having a long-range plan and analysis.

“The idea is to find where the district can be in five years,’’ he said.

Timbs said part of his analysis is to understand where the money comes from and how it’s spent in the district.

One area to examine is the last five years of district budgets.

Timbs said 673 districts, including Waterville, receive state aid.

Waterville’s biggest category of state aid is Foundation aid, with $10.4 million coming this year.

Timbs said while WCS is ‘‘heavily dependent’’ on Foundation aid it has not increased much in past years. He advised that going forward in the 2025-26 budget the district adopt a buy only what is needed approach.

That’s because, Timbs said, with 65 to 70 percent of the budget paying for staff costs, Waterville does not have many areas to cut spending.

“The state is not coming to rescue Waterville,’’ he said.

Also analyzed are current projects and the state aid reimbursement, reserve funds and the fund balance history.

Board President Steve Stanton said the interest is in learning other best practice strategies to maximize every dollar spent, as well as ideas on making tough choices.

Also at the meeting Superintendent Zach Abbe said initial meetings for the Capital Outlay project to replace doors at Memorial Park started, as well as the New York State Education Department looking at a larger project for approval.

Abbe, Amarosa and MPS ...