Residents of the Great Neck Public School district will head to the polls to cast ballots on Tuesday, May 21, voting on the school budget, the library budget and a school board seat being sought by incumbent Trustee Monique Bloom in an uncontested race.
Great Neck Superintendent of Schools Tom Dolan emphasized the importance of resident participation in the vote on the $209 million school budget, which raises the tax levy 3.14 percent while staying within the state-mandated tax cap.
“I encourage all Great Neck school district residents to participate in this important process and make sure that their voice is heard relative to the district’s commitment to maintain a quality program while staying within the legislatively imposed tax cap,” Dolan said.
The budget includes a nearly $10 million increase over last year that school officials largely attributed to increases in state-mandated retirement and employee benefit contributions.
Despite a 3.4 percent increase in the tax levy – $6 million – the increase falls within the state-mandated tax cap, with costs being offset by a dip into reserve funds and a reduction in an equivalent of 17 teacher positions and 21 teachers’ aides, assistants and monitors.
Board Vice President Lawrence Gross described a “herculean effort” on the part of the stakeholders to find savings without compromising programs following the budget’s adoption in April.
“The budget is within the cap that it is suggested we stay within,” Gross said. “There are some reductions of staff, but they are done in a way to maintain [programs.]”
In future years, finding that balance may be more of a challenge, warned Gross. He described growing costs due to state mandates and stagnant state aid, and said that the state needs to consider education a “paramount function” of government.
“In coming years it will not be so easy to create a budget that does what this one does,” Gross said.
The Great Neck Library’s $8.53 million budget, which includes a 1.97 percent tax levy increase that falls within the tax cap, is also up for a vote.
“We have not raised the tax base in several years and our 2014 budget adheres to the 2 percent [state] cap. This budget demonstrates the philosophy of the Great Neck Library Board to be fiscally responsible; to provide new services such as E-comm, and to evaluate current services to assess enhancements or replacements,” wrote library board President Marietta DiCamillo in an e-mail. “We encourage every household to vote in favor of this budget.”
The budget features a $119,000 increase from 2012-2013. Some $8.4 million will be covered by tax appropriations, with the rest derived from operating revenues. The increase was driven by a $79,700 jump in employee benefits and taxes and a $53,000 increase in spending for materials and programs.
Much of the change in materials and programs expenses was due to projected $27,100 increase in Nassau Library System fees, according to the budget. The board is in dispute with Nassau Library System over the way the consortium assesses its fees for online databases and library services, alleging that Nassau Library System’s practice of basing fees on the size of a library’s budget is unfair.
The board is also projecting a $43,000, or 24.6 percent, drop in operating revenue, which business manager Neil Zitofsky attributed at an April meeting to an overestimation of the income that would result from hiking late-return fines last year.
The $79,700 jump in employee benefits resulted from rises in state retirement contributions and health-insurance premiums, according a statement issued by the board in April.
But salaries took a 1 percent drop, with the library trimming two full-time equivalent positions from last year’s budget.
School board Trustee Monique Bloom is running in an uncontested election. She is seeking her first full term in office after being appointed in June 2012 after board Vice President Fran Langsner moved outside the school district, forcing her resignation.
Bloom, a Kings Point resident whose four children were all educated in Great Neck Public schools, said she is committed to serving on the board.
“I’ve enjoyed my last several months so much, I think it makes perfect sense to commit to a longer period of time,” Bloom said. “My colleagues are extremely professional. I think we are endeavoring to do good things in the school district.”
Bloom, who worked on Wall Street before leaving to become a full-time parent, served as president of the Parent Teacher Association and United Parent Teacher Council before her appointment to the board.
“I retired to raise my four children and became very, very involved in the parent leadership of the Great Neck public school system,” Bloom said.
Her experience in the PTA and United Parent Teacher Council, as well as the board’s budget and policy transparency, prepared her for her board post, Bloom said.
“It certainly has been a pretty steep learning curve, but the fact that I’ve been involved on the parent leadership level for a number of years and because of the board and school district’s total commitment to transparency, the learning curve was not nearly as steep as it could have been,” Bloom said. “I was allowed access to pretty much everything I needed to perform my duties [as a parent leader.]”
Residents will head to the polls on May 21 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., at the E.M. Baker Elementary School and Great Neck South High School.
