Assemblyman Al Stirpe (D-Cicero) announced that he secured an additional $50,000 in discretionary funding from the state for the North Syracuse Central School District. This funding will be used to help offset deep cuts to the school district’s programs and teaching positions.

“The North Syracuse Central School District is working hard to overcome this year’s budget shortfall. I believe this additional funding is a small step in preserving the district’s goal of providing a quality education to their students,” Assemblyman Stirpe said.

This year’s budget process for the North Syracuse School District was extremely difficult. The district was forced to cut a building administrator at the district’s largest middle school, 24 coaching positions, eight sports teams, 11 teaching positions, 10 teaching assistant positions and 16% of the budget for extracurricular activities. Since the school district did not have a large fund balance set aside like other districts, there was nothing left to offset the funding gap for North Syracuse. Previous attempts by the district to raise taxes above the cap failed, leaving no option other than to make cuts to various educational programs and positions.

“I applaud Assemblyman Stirpe’s efforts to secure this additional funding at a time when our schools truly need it the most,” North Syracuse School Interim Superintendent Annette Speach said. “Unfortunately, this past year, the school district was left with no other option than to implement devastating cuts to close the funding gap. While this additional funding won’t be able to restore all the cuts made, every little bit helps.”