The East Williston school district’s $57.4 million 2016-2017 budget will not come with a property tax increase for residents.
The revised budget the school board approved Wednesday cut more than $245,000 in contingencies to flatten a proposed 0.47-percent tax levy increase and reduce the overall budget increase, board President Mark Kamberg said.
“We always want it to be low, and this particular year the finances of it allowed us to get to a zero levy,” Kamberg said.
Flattening the levy reduced the year-to-year increase in the overall size of the budget from 1.83 percent, or about $1 million, to 1.4 percent, or about $791,000. Based on the district’s projected enrollment of 1,735 students next year, per-pupil spending will rise to $33,129 from $32,924 in 2015-2016.
At the recommendation of the district’s Financial Advisory Committee, administrators will soon start a larger discussion about whether and how to further tighten contingencies after large surpluses in the past two years, Assistant Superintendent for Business Jacqueline Pirro said.
It will be part of the process of developing a regular three-year financial forecast to better understand the district’s long-term finances in the climate of the state’s tax levy cap, Superintendent Elaine Kanas said.
“The answers to those questions really grow out of that kind of study, and I think it’s a good thing to be doing that kind of study, but it’s important to look at it not just one year to one year, but over time,” she said.
The school board also on Wednesday approved a ballot proposition to put up to $4.9 million in a capital reserve fund to eventually upgrade athletic facilities at all three of its schools, and a second to let the district spend up to $2 million of $3.5 million reserved last year for other improvements.
The new reserve fund continues a trend in the district of saving instead of borrowing for large projects.
If the athletic reserve is approved, the district will have saved $11.5 million in the last four years, more than the $11.2 million it currently owes in outstanding bonds, said Stephan Leccesse of the Financial Advisory Committee.
“The capital reserve fund is really taking the place of the bond, creating more flexibility,” he said.
The budget aims to continue building and creating curricular initiatives in district schools, administrators have said.
It will support the third year of Project Lead the Way, an engineering curriculum; district literacy programs; a new Advanced Placement capstone course for high school seniors; and a technology expansion, Kanas said.
As in other districts, East Williston was helped this year by an increase in state aid and reductions in the district’s required contributions to teacher and employee pension funds.
The proposed tax levy increase first rose from 0.39 percent to 0.47 percent before administrators flattened it.
The revision accounted for changes in projected revenue from the Long Island Power Authority’s payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, the subject of a lawsuit between East Williston and more than 40 other Nassau County districts.
LIPA previously shorted districts on its first-half PILOTs because it calculated its payments based on the calendar year rather than the school year. A judge ordered it in February to pay the full amount Nassau County billed for this year as the case proceeds.
East Williston’s attorney told administrators to budget the lower amount for next year, Pirro said.
With per-pupil spending continuing to rise, Leccesse said, the district should develop ways to measure its “return on investment” to determine “whether more is better.”
“What ultimately should be coming out is, what do our students require, how do we support it and how do we do that as efficiently as possible?” he said.
The advisory committee supported the establishment of the $4.9 million capital reserve to revamp its three schools’ athletic facilities.
The Wheatley School would get about $3 million of the fixes — a new track, synthetic turf field, wood gym floor and other improvements.
The Willets Road School would get a new soccer field for about $150,000. The money would fix some drainage problems at the North Side School, which would also get a new baseball field, parking lot and security vestibule.
Projects would take at least two years to complete, Pirro said. Most district capital projects take between two and five years.
Administrators asked the school board to consider the idea after residents told them they thought the district had sufficiently grown academic programs while athletics were not prioritized.
“It’s at this time, with the comfort level achieved as it relates to our academic facilities, that we’ve gone back to take a look at our athletic facilities, which are arguably underserving our student athletes,” Howard Siegler, a member of the district’s Capital Facilities Advisory Committee, told the school board Wednesday.
The other $2 million in capital reserve expenditures would cover new windows at the North Side School, new doors at the Willets Road School, new handicap-accessible bathrooms and floors at the Wheatley School, and new kitchen ventilation systems at Willets Road and Wheatley, Pirro said.
District residents will vote on the budget, the athletic reserve fund and the $2 million reserve expenditure from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. May 17 in the Wheatley School gymnasium.
Voters will also elect school board trustees that day. Barbara Slone’s and David Keefe’s seats are up for election this year.
