Manhasset voters next Tuesday will decide whether to approve the school district’s proposed $90,389,627 budget for the 2015-16 year and make their picks for two Board of Education positions for which two trustees are running unopposed.
The budget, first introduced in early March and adopted by the board in mid April, carries a 2.79 percent year-to-year spending increase and $82,872,705 total tax levy, meeting the district’s allowable 2.52 percent levy limit.
Carlo Prinzo, the board’s vice president, and Trustee Ann Marie Curd are each seeking re-election to three-year terms to the board.
Voting will take place at Manhasset High School from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Administrators and Board of Education trustees have said the budget enables the district to continue its restoration of courses, extracurricular activities and teachers lost by a 2013-14 budget vote that unsuccessfully sought to breach the state tax cap.
The adopted budget represents the culmination of a seven-year average tax levy increase of 1.9 percent and a seven-year average expenditure increase of 1.7 percent, while overall student enrollment has increased 7.5 percent, officials said.
Manhasset has approximately 3,300 students enrolled at Munsey Park Elementary School, Shelter Rock Elementary School and the Manhasset Secondary School, which houses Manhasset Middle School and Manhasset High School.
The budget provides for the hiring of 12 teachers and the implementation of several new courses at the elementary and secondary levels to meet student demand and enrollment projections in future years, officials said.
In addition to restoring class sections of various electives, as well as class sizes that align with state averages, Manhasset plans to offer new elective courses in Advanced Creative Writing, Journalism, Latin I, Mandarin Chinese I, Multivariable Calculus, advanced placement-level Computer Science and Accounting, advanced placement-level Studio Art, Architectural Drawing, Drawing, Electronic Keyboarding, Introduction to Business, advanced placement-level Environmental Science, Forensics, Criminal Civil Law and Introduction to Psychology.
Manhasset has also proposed an intramural athletics program at the middle school level, which officials said may take a few years to cultivate due to field constraints with upcoming renovations to Memorial Field and other scheduling conflicts.
Manhasset will receive $4.2 million in state aid in 2015-16, a $397,000 increase from 2014-15, which includes the restoration of $227,000 the district lost in past years as a result of the state’s gap elimination adjustment program.
Prinzo, the board liaison to the district’s citizens advisory committees on technology and finance as well as the non-profit Tower Foundation, has served three terms as trustee.
He is a 21-year Manhasset resident who has had two children in the Manhasset School District, one who graduated in 2013 and another currently enrolled.
Prinzo is a member of the district’s Audit Committee. His professional background is in the retail industry.
Curd, who has three children who are students in Manhasset, is the board liaison to the Citizens Advisory Committee on technology, the Coalition Against Substance Abuse, the Special Education Parent Teacher Association and the Tower Foundation.
Curd, an attorney who was first appointed to the board in 2012, is a member of the Board Policy Committee.
