Voters on Tuesday approved the Great Neck School District’s $216,697,754 budget for the 2015-16 school year and re-elected Barbara Berkowitz and Donald Ashkenase to the Board of Education.
The budget, which has a 1.23 percent increase in spending from the $214,067,850 budget for 2014-15, was approved by a vote of 839 to 179 – 82.4 percent in favor. The 2014-15 school budget was approved by a vote of 1,679 to 444 with 79 percent in favor.
The 1,018 people who voted on the budget is a decrease of 1,105 voters from last year’s turnout of 2,123 residents.
Great Neck Board of Education Vice President Larry Gross said the budget was intelligently constructed by Great Neck School District Superintendent Tom Dolan, and that they are able to reduce expenses without reducing programming.
“It’s not done by eliminating things it’s done by doing it smarter,” Gross said of the budget.
The $199,496,645 tax levy for the 2015-16 budget is a 1.56 percent increase from the $196,435,489 levy of the 2014-2015 budget.
About 73.9 percent of the budget will be spent on instruction, which includes teacher salaries, materials and textbooks. Some 10.72 percent will go toward maintenance of buildings and grounds, and 6.31 percent will go toward transportation.
Berkowitz, who currently is president of the board, thanked Dolan for his hard work on the last budget he will have helped develop as superintendent, as he is retiring effective July 31. Current Garden City Public Schools Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Teresa Prendergast will take over as Great Neck superintendent on July 15.
“This is your budget you worked on so hard going back more than a year,” Berkowitz said. “It’s a wonderful legacy you’re leaving here in Great Neck for us for Teresa to have a budget so supported by such a wide margin.”
Ashkenase also thanked school district Assistant Superintendent for Business John Powell for being conservative in crafting the budget.
Berkowitz and Ashkenase were both unopposed in winning re-election with Berkowitz receiving 807 votes and Ashkenase receiving 773. Both were unopposed.
Berkowitz, who has been board president since 2006, was appointed to the board in 1992 after the death of former Trustee Connie McNicol left a vacant seat, and then won an election in 1993. She served as board vice president from 2000 to 2003, and from 1993 to 2006, on the board’s Policy Committee, which writes and reviews policy recommendations.
She also founded the Family Math and Outreach Programs at E.M. Baker School and Good Ideas For Teens, a committee that explored teen activities in Great Neck.
Ashkenase was first elected to the board in 1982 and served as board president from 1985 to 1987 and vice president from 1984 to 1985.
A public health professional, he currently serves as an adjunct assistant professor at the Columbia University School of Public Health. He got his bachelor of science degree in accounting from Brooklyn College and his MBA in hospital administration from Wagner College.
He has served as chief financial officer at both the Long Island Jewish Medical Center and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation
Write-in votes totaled five, which included one vote for former United Parent Teacher Council President Jimmy Kwong and two votes for Larry Penner, a regular contributor to the Great Neck News’ letters pages.
Residents also approved the establishment of a capital reserve fund, which will have a maximum value of $19 million, to finance future infrastructure improvements with an 807 to 165 vote in favor.
Residents voted Tuesday to establish the fund, the length of the fund — July 2016 to June 2025 — where the money in the fund will come from and what types of projects will be financed by the reserve, Powell has said.
Powell has said the money in the capital reserve fund would come from accumulated funds in other reserves the school district has, including a retirement contribution reserve, workers compensation reserve and unemployment reserve.
On May 17, 2016, school district residents will vote on the list and cost of the projects the fund will finance, Powell has said.
The school district is set to receive $8,472,067 in state aid for the next school year, a 11.94 percent increase from the $7,568,390 it received for 2014-15. Of the $903,677 increase in state aid, the district only plans to use about $700,000, with the extra $200,000 going into a fund for future use.
Of that $700,000 to be spent, about $200,000 will go toward increases to the budget trustees requested at a March budget hearing.
Included in that $200,000 is an additional $50,000 for legal costs, $1,000 more for translating school district messages, $107,000 for iPad leases, $25,000 for non-instructional personnel and $17,000 for student events, which could include funding students to go to national competitions, Powell has said.
The other $500,000 in increased state aid will be used to reduce the amount of money the district initially planned to withdraw from a reserve fund to pay for retirement contributions, workers compensation and unemployment insurance, Powell has said.
Board Vice President Larry Gross has said the budget was developed with the assumption that the district would not receive all the funding it was originally promised. He said in the past the district has gotten less money from the state than they were promised.
The increase in state aid to the district was part of a $1.6 billion increase in education aid statewide that was negotiated as part of the $150 billion state budget approved earlier this month.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo had initially proposed a $1.1 billion increase in education aid in exchange for the Legislature agreeing to pass a series of reforms, including tying teacher evaluations more closely to students’ state test scores, making it more difficult for teachers to receive tenure and allowing the state to take over low-performing schools.
After intense political opposition, Cuomo later agreed to a $1.6 billion increase in education in exchange for establishing parameters for teacher evaluations that would result in a more rigorous evaluation system. The changes are to be left to the state Education Department to work out.
During the 2014-2015 school year, there were 6,399 registered students among the 10 schools in the district. The district projects that 6,398 students will register for the 2015-16 school year.
The schools in the district are comprised of Great Neck North High School, Great Neck South High School, the Village School, Great Neck North Middle School, Great Neck South Middle School, the E.M. Baker School, the John F. Kennedy School, Lakeville School, Saddle Rock School and Parkville School.
