With three area school districts still in limbo as far as what their operating budgets will be for the upcoming academic year, school board members in those districts need to not only sharpen their pencils and look for ways to cut spending but they also need to do a bit of public education.

School boards in Southern Cayuga and Jordan-Elbridge are both looking to trim their original proposals, though neither has come up with specific plans yet. In Auburn, the board decided that its original budget would be put before voters again, with no alterations.

Whatever the specifics involved, the three districts need to explain to their voters - in detail - why their budgets are the best they can be. And they must refrain from telling people that the specter of a contingency budget is the best reason for voting “yes” this time around.

In the past, area school administrators have used contingency budgets as leverage against the taxpayers to get their budgets passed. The not-so-subtle underlying threat is that if a district is forced to utilize a contingency budget that wholesale cuts in things like sports and music programs will be unavoidable.

Misinformation is sometimes cast in these situations in an attempt to trick people into believing that contingency budgets carry specific mandatory cuts, and that's simply not the case.

The truth is that while contingency budgets have state mandated maximum spending increases - and spell out various programs that must be funded - any cuts that need to be made because of spending restrictions are left to the individual districts to work out for themselves.

Voters must not be asked to vote “yes” simply to avoid accepting a contingency budget. They must be asked to vote “yes” because their school boards have put together responsible budgets.