The Manhasset Board of Education on Wednesday unanimously approved exemptions of up to $60,000 off the property tax assessments of veterans and up to $20,000 for the parents of service members who died in battle.
The exemptions include $12,000 for veterans and an additional $8,000 for service in a combat zone, as well as up to $40,000 for those who became disabled during combat or for injuries sustained in peaceful duty that led to disability, officials said.
Mothers and fathers of deceased service members, known as Gold Star Parents, would be eligible for up to $20,000 in exemptions, officials said.
Rosemary Johnson, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, has said the Nassau County Assessor’s office notified the district that there are 347 possible exemptions in Manhasset, but no Gold Star Parents.
Johnson said the average Manhasset tax bill will rise by $12.65, with $12.50 going toward school taxes and 15 cents toward library taxes.
The exemptions were introduced in public hearings during the board’s March 6 meeting.
In other developments:
•Trustees said they have received positive feedback on the district’s $87.8 million preliminary 2014-15 budget, which was passed during a work session at Manhasset Secondary School on Saturday.
“I’ve reached out to members of our community who have said, ‘Oh, this will pass easily,’ but we don’t want to think that way,” said board of education President Regina Rule.
Wednesday’s meeting at Munsey Park Elementary served as the second of four informal budget presentations in advance of the board’s April 9 budget adoption meeting.
The budget calls for a 1.90 percent spending increase from last year and 1.84 percent tax levy increase that falls within the state’s 2 percent tax cap.
Last year, the district’s budget exceeded the cap and required supermajority consensus from a community-wide vote to pass.
The board’s next informal budget hearing will take place Thursday at Shelter Rock Elementary School.
• The district on Thursday issued a news release announcing recent collective-bargaining agreements reached with its teachers, employees and administrators unions. Announcements of the agreements were also made during Thursday’s board of education meeting and Saturday’s budgetary work session.
“The support of these agreements enables the district to continue to strive to meet the needs of all our students and our taxpayers,” Rule said in the release. “Our students win thanks to this effective, dedicated Manhasset team.”
A new two-year agreement with the Manhasset Education Association, which represents the district’s teachers, is expected to generate $550,000 in savings, according to the release, and amounts to a zero percent salary increase in its first year and a 1 percent increase in the second year.
Teachers will also contribute 22 percent of health-care premiums, which according to the release is among the highest contribution percentages on Long Island.
The agreement places a moratorium for the 2014-15 school year on salary increases for teachers completing additional coursework, reduces district payments to the union’s benefits trust fund and establishes a new “salary bridge” through which teacher salaries based on varying levels of experience and education have been reduced from those in the previous agreement.
In addition, teachers will not be eligible for salary increases under the new agreement until the fourth year of their employment, according to the release.
“The recent modest contract settlement is one that is fair to teachers while acknowledging the dire impact of the financial constraints of the tax cap on the Manhasset School System,” said Ed Vasta, president of the Manhasset Education Association.
The district’s new one-year agreement with the Manhasset Administrators and Supervisors Association provides for a fixed dollar amount salary increase equating to 2.5 percent of the union’s compensation, according to the release.
Salaries for district administrators have increased by less than 1 percent over the past four years, according to the release.
Ray Scacalossi, the Manhasset Administrators and Supervisors Association’s president, said the agreement was “a fair settlement for the 15 administrators whose work is essential to providing a quality education for all students in the Manhasset Public Schools.”
The district’s two-year agreement with the Manhasset Educational Support Personnel Association, which represents teacher assistants, supervisory aides, cleaners, maintainers, groundskeepers and clerks, includes a 1 percent salary increase in each year and defers annual incremental increases to the second half of each year of the contract, according to the release.
Health-care premiums will also increase from 11 percent to 12 percent in the second year of the agreement, according to the release. New hires will contribute 16 percent in the first year and 17 percent in the second year.
“The negotiating team attended numerous meetings with the district to exchange and discuss proposals,” said Fran Shackel, the union’s president. “Both sides met in good faith and diligently worked together to come to an agreement on the contract.”
