AVCS Meets with Town of Ausable

The Town of Ausable recently hosted a productive meeting with representatives from the AuSable Valley Central School district. This gathering is part of an ongoing commitment from AVCS for continued open communications, sharing key insights into the district’s long-term financial outlook, and building stronger partnerships with our local communities.

We truly value these opportunities to collaborate. Many of the financial and demographic pressures facing our schools are the same ones impacting our towns and residents—we’re all in this together.

During the discussion, Superintendent Michael Francia highlighted several longstanding, structural challenges driving the district’s current financial position:

• New York State’s Property Tax Cap (in place since 2012) severely limits our ability to raise local revenue through taxes. Even before the cap, AVCS had less flexibility than many neighboring districts. The 2% formula has made it even harder to keep pace with rising costs.
• A flawed Foundation Aid formula from the state labels our district as “wealthy” based on current property values—yet this doesn’t reflect the economic realities of the families and students we serve. With declining student enrollment in recent years (continuing a multi-year trend), we’ve been placed in “hold harmless” status. This guarantees no cut in base aid from one year to the next but blocks meaningful increases, even as expenses climb. Fewer students mean the same fixed costs spread over less revenue— a shared concern for both the district and the Town.
• Broader community trends, such as rising second-home ownership and short-term rentals, have boosted property values but reduced affordable housing options for young families. This contributes directly to our enrollment decline.
• The expiration of one-time American Rescue Plan (ARP) federal funds (used to address pandemic-related learning loss) has created a funding cliff, widening the gap between revenues and expenditures.
• Like households and local governments across the region, we’re dealing with prolonged inflation driving up costs for health care, utilities, fuel, salaries, transportation, and other essentials.

These factors have created a structural imbalance that can’t be ignored. To address it responsibly, the district is carefully exploring budget reductions and operational restructuring—focusing on “right-sizing” in areas affected by lower enrollment while protecting core student programs and educational quality as much as possible.

The Superintendent also fielded questions on topics like health insurance contributions and staffing, and shared the next steps in our budget development process.

This meeting underscored how vital open dialogue and teamwork are between the school district and local governments as we tackle these shared issues head-on.

AuSable Valley remains fully committed to transparency, community input, and partnership. As they move through the coming months and finalize budget decisions for the year ahead, they’re committed to keeping residents informed and welcome your thoughts and involvement.

Together, we can navigate these challenges while preserving the strong education our Patriot students deserve.

Sincerely,
-Tim