Phoenicia, NY: SPED budget at $1.45M; 26% increase

Dec 10, 2018, Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman: BOCES costs up nearly 15 percent in Onteora school district https://www.dailyfreeman.com/news/local-news/boces-costs-up-nearly-percent-in-onteora-school-district/article_a391c354-f8b6-11e8-9f9d-ff15484d3748.html PHOENICIA, N.Y. — The Onteora school district is seeing a more than $500,000 increase in costs for Ulster County BOCES programs in the current academic year. The district's current-year expense for programs provided by the Ulster County Board of Cooperative Educational Services is up 14.91 percent, to $3.41 million. At a Board of Education meeting Tuesday, Dec. 4, officials said most of the additional expenses were for special education programs. The special education program budget, at $1.45 million, was up $374,336, or 25.86 percent. “There are 18 kids enrolled (in special education), where last year there were 10 or 12 kids,” Ulster County BOCES Superintendent Charles Khoury said. “That would account for the cost rise.” Khoury added that special education expenses are driven more by needs that must be addressed than the number of students being served. Expenses for the current school year are up from the $942,012 the district spent three years ago….