GUILDERLAND — The school district is launching a website today to gauge public opinion on which of four unpleasant options the district should pursue in building its budget for next year.

After Superintendent Marie Wiles came to Guilderland six years ago, the longtime process of having a host of citizen volunteers review the budget proposal in a series of televised sessions was replaced with “community conversations” where the public was invited to comment, working in small groups, on budget options.

When Guilderland, like districts across the state, first faced multi-million-dollar budget gaps, the community conversations were well attended. In recent years — particularly last year, when massive cuts were not needed — attendance at the meetings had fallen off.

“We decided to see if technology would get more feedback,” Wiles told The Enterprise. (See related letter to the editor.)

Wiles is slated to present her budget proposal on March 3 after which residents will have a chance to respond “face to face,” Wiles said.

She told the school board at its Tuesday night meeting, “We’re rethinking how we engage the community.”

The survey website may be reached through a link on the district website, and also through Twitter and the School News Notifier. The survey will be open until Feb. 15.

“A lot of people don’t have children in the school district,” said board President Allan Simpson, indicating parents are the most frequent users of the School News Notifier. He also said, referring to the 75 to 200 people attending the community conversations, “A lot more people pay taxes.”

Simpson suggested asking public library patrons to fill out the survey, which Wiles called “a great idea.”

She also noted a letter to the Enterprise editor would publicize the survey, which can be filled out on paper by contacting the board clerk, Linda Livingston, at the district office. Wiles said, too, that residents without access to a computer could come to the school to use one.

The survey is designed so that each person, or at least each computer, can file only one response. Survey Monkey makes it easy to tabulate results, said Wiles.

“We’ve been wracking our brains on how to get community participation,” said Gloria Towle-Hilt who chairs the board’s communication committee, which worked on the survey. Towle-Hilt participated in the meeting from Bonita Springs, Florida through a computer hook-up.

“We are hopeful to get a strong response,” said Wiles.

Four options

Wiles walked the board through the survey.

“We are, believe it or not, in another tough spot,” she said. Guilderland has a $93.7 million budget this year, which came after five years of large budget gaps when the district cut over 200 staff members.

The governor’s budget proposal for next year, Wiles reiterated, restores only 30 percent of the Gap Elimination Adjustment and keeps Foundation Aid flat. Guilderland can expect state financial support below 2008-09 levels, she said.

At the same time, the Consumer Price Index is being used to set the tax cap at near zero, meaning Guilderland can’t increase its tax levy unless it gets at least 60 percent of the public vote on May 17.

The survey opens with questions on demographics and whether the filer has children in the district. The four options are then explained by short video clips with links to more detailed information.

The heart of the survey involves ranking the four options and then weighting their importance. The entire process should take less than 10 minutes, Wiles said.

Wiles first introduced the four options at a televised school board meeting last month and they were then reiterated at a subsequent meeting by Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders.

Option A Wiles described as “almost the unthinkable” — more reductions of programs and services.

Option B is to deny the increases requested by program leaders across the district, which would involve additional resources for next year.

Option C is to dip into the district’s fund balance or rainy-day account.

Guilderland in recent years had used its fund balance to avoid raising taxes while still trying to keep programs in place. For the past two years, the district had been on the state comptroller’s list of school districts susceptible to fiscal risk. Last week, the comptroller issued his annual report and Guilderland was not on the list, meaning its fund balance had been restored to the point where the comptroller no longer considered the district susceptible to risk.

Option D is to challenge the tax-levy threshold to close the budget shortfall.

Guilderland has not previously tried to get the 60 percent or more voter approval required to go over the tax cap, always staying under the state-set limit to pass budgets with a simple majority of 50 percent or more. Many districts that have gone over the levy limit faced defeat at the polls.

If a budget is ultimately defeated, the state allows no levy increase.

Wiles concluded on the purpose of the survey, “We can get a feel from the community on what we should be aiming for.”

“I’m happy to have other people face the difficult decisions we face,” said board member Christopher McManus.