Residents of the Great Neck School District will vote on the $216,697,754 2015-16 school budget Tuesday as well as two Board of Education trustee positions.
Board of Education President Barbara Berkowitz and Trustee Donald Ashkenase are seeking re-election unopposed.
Voting will take place in the multipurpose room of E.M. Baker School, at 69 Baker Hill Road, for voters north of the Long Island Rail Road station and the west gym of Great Neck South High School, at 341 Lakeville Road, for voters south of the LIRR.
The budget, which the board approved on April 21, calls for a 1.23 percent increase in spending from the $214,067,850 2014-15 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 has been board president since 2006, was appointed to the board in 1992 after the death of former board 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, she said.
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.
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, district Assistant Superintendent for Business John 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.
Residents will also vote to establish a capital reserve fund, which will have a maximum value of $19 million, to finance future infrastructure improvements.
Residents will vote this year 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 said.
On May 17, 2016, school district residents will vote on the list and cost of the projects the fund will finance, if the fund passes this May, Powell said.
Powell 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.
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 include 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.
