The East Williston School Board made its initial presentation Wednesday, Feb. 2 of a $51.9 million budget for 2011-12, representing a 2.85 percent increase over the current $50.5 million budget and a 6.19 percent increase in the tax levy.
In her presentation of the district administration’s proposed budget numbers, Jacqueline Fitzpatrick, assistant superintendent for business, said employee salaries in the district – which constitute 62 percent of all costs – will rise to $31.9 million, during the next budget cycle.
The bulk of the year-to-year increase is the rise in contributory pension costs of 15.9 percent for the employee retirement system and 11.5 percent for the teachers retirement system. She said health insurance costs will rise 14 percent.
Fitzpatrick said the proposed budget includes $394,000 to be taken from the district’s reserve fund to defray the impact of the mandated increases the district will incur. Last year the school board applied over $1 million in surplus budget funds to reduce costs in the current budget. The school district currently has a surplus of $1.3 million through its first two fiscal quarters.
A contingency budget, which would be implemented if district residents vote rejected the proposed budget in its final form, would be $51.4 million, a 1.79 percent increase over the current budget.
In that contingency scenario, the school district property tax levy would rise by 5 percent. Based on the proposed budget, the tax levy would increase by 6 percent.
Mark Kamberg, school board president, said the board has begun negotiations with all of the employee units in the district. Current contracts with all of the units expire in June.
Resident Bob Howell said the school board should seek concessions from the teachers in the current negotiations.
“Make our teachers aware, because as far as I’m concerned, they have to give back also,” he said.
Kamberg noted that East Williston has joined a lawsuit being brought by other school districts in Nassau County to fight the proposed end of the county guarantee, which would force school districts to bridge the financial gap created when residents file property tax appeals.
“This county has never done it that way,” Kamberg said, adding that the county was “putting the burden on the back of the school districts.”
The county is also imposing a sewer tax on school districts, a tax which the school board may also challenge in court. That tax would add an estimated $40,000 to the school district’s expenses
“We don’t even have sewers here,” said Robert Freier, school board vice president.
East Williston Superintendent of Schools Lorna Lewis pointed out that the school district operates at an inherent disadvantage in comparison to other school districts with substantial commercial tax bases, something that East Williston lacks. She noted that the Great Neck school district draws 40 percent of its taxes from commercial sources.
“For the same level of education, the tax bases are very different for every district. We have no commercial properties, so our taxpayers are unfairly burdened,” Lewis said.
Overall administrative costs for the district are projected to rise $433,271 under the proposed budget, while capital costs, including capital repairs and upkeep of school grounds, would rise by $34,000.
Salaries for the superintendent’s office will rise $7,700. Lewis, whose salary is $223,510, is voluntarily taking a salary freeze next year.
In a presentation on the special education budget on Monday night, Claire Hayes, district special education director, noted a planned exapnsion of the life skills program at The Wheatley School, but projected an overall reduction of $269,829 in non-salary expenses and a drop of more than $300,000 in outside services and tuitions due to one student graduating and another leaving the district.
Hayes also projected a net loss of two teaching positions, with a planned reduction of six teachers at The Wheatley School and the addition of four instructros at the North Side School.
District athletic director Tom Fitzpatrick projected a $42,000 increase in the athletics budget, fueled by the purchase of permanent bleachers for the Wheatley School track field to provide seating for nearly 800 spectators. Freier asked whether portable bleachers would cost less. Fitzpatrick said they would cost approximately $40,000.
Freier said the board would like to renovate the Wheatley tennis courts, which were resurfaced last year, but said the board lacked the means to undertake the job.
“Our tennis courts are in bad shape. But the cost to replace would be too much money,” he said.
One issue yet to be addressed in the current budget is $200,000 in state grant money secure through state Sen. Craig Johnson that was rescinded after Johnson lost his seat last year. That total reflects the cost of projects already undertaken, including refurbishment of the North Side School playground and the running track at The Wheatley School.
