We, the undersigned citizens of Valley Central School District, Montgomery, New York, urge you to fully restore education aid to NYS schools by ending the GAP ELIMINATION ADJUSTMENT (GEA) in the 2014-2015 state budget. This is not a request for new or additional funds for education, but a call for funding already promised, but not delivered.

Currently, total state education aid remains below the level provided to NYS school districts in 2008-09, while at the same time expectations for educational outcomes and accountability have increased dramatically with the adoption of the Common Core Learning Standards and the implementation of the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR). To say that New York schools are being asked to do more with less is a gross understatement.

Since the GEA was enacted in 2008, Valley Central has lost $24,200,000 in funding. That has translated into a 24.1% reduction in staff including a loss of 98 teaching positions, major program cuts including: closing a village elementary school, reducing Kindergarten to half day, cutting Reading Recovery and severely reducing Literacy Collaborative, eliminating art and music at elementary level, cutting JV and Modified sports, JROTC, Elementary Library, Elementary Chorus and Band, the third grade swim program and All District Concert. These words cannot convey the quality of staff and program that the students of Valley Central have lost over the tenure of the GEA. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />