Roslyn school administrators Thursday detailed projected expenses for maintaining the district’s transportation, facilities and curriculum as part of the district’s $103.1 million working budget for the 2015-16 school year.
Though expenditures are expected to increase slightly in each area in the next year, officials said figures were formulated as close to actual costs as possible.
Transportation has been budgeted at $1,297,811, facilities at $2,732,938 and curriculum – with most costs covered by federal grants – at $839,847, without salaries, officials said.
Thursday’s presentation was the first of four breakdowns of various aspects of the budget. Additional presentations are scheduled for Feb. 26, March 12 and March 26.
The board of education has an April 21 deadline to approve its school budget in advance of the May 19 community vote.
Approximately 3,300 students are enrolled within the Roslyn School District. The district’s cost-per-pupil during the 2014-15 school year was $31,121.21.
Curriculum
Roslyn’s curriculum budget increased to $839,847 from $808,253 in 2014-15, said Allison Brown, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
The largest budgetary increase comes on the “aidable” line, Brown said, a $139,767 expenditure meant for updating textbooks throughout the district.
Brown said the district would focus on the expansion of its iPad initiative at the elementary school level and continue the evolution of its foreign exchange program with China, Project Lead the Way initiative and coursework within the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Brown, Roslyn High School Principal Scott Andrews and Roslyn Middle School Principal Jack Palmadesso also outlined several new courses and clubs budgeted for the next school year.
New high school courses in business, English and music have been prepared for the 2015-16 school year, as well as a Computer Integrated Manufacturing course that expands on an engineering program entering its second year.
The district is also considering a second advanced placement physics course and advanced placement-level Italian course, but Andrews said enrollment be high enough to sustain sections.
Computer Integrated Manufacturing would be offered to students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades who have taken the school’s introductory engineering design course. It would incorporate topics of product design, robotics and automation within the manufacturing process.
A “Business Essentials” course, offered to students of all high school grade levels, would provide students with training on the Microsoft Office platform of programs and with a focus on Microsoft Excel. Resume writing, portfolio preparation, interview skills, presentations and research would also be taught.
Andrews said a proposed Video & Audio Production course may be held in conjunction with the Town of Hempstead, which has a television station in Westbury.
High school students have also expressed interest in a journalism course, Andrews said, that would teach news gathering and writing fundamentals across a myriad of media platforms.
Rounding out the potential new high school offerings are two musical theory courses, the latter at the advanced-placement level.
At the middle school, Brown said the district would look to incorporate STEM courses to bridge similar curriculum at the elementary and high schools.
Among the courses slated for the next year are 7th and 8th grade engineering technology courses that would teach the design process as well as robotics skills. A coding elective would also be offered.
Roslyn Middle School would have a $97,648 budget for clubs and activities, Palmadesso said.
Three new clubs – for AIDS awareness, autism awareness and Shakespeare studies – have been budgeted to be added to Roslyn High School’s extracurricular programs, Andrews said. The district has budgeted $360,119 for clubs.
Transportation
David Shoob, the district’s transportation supervisor, said his department would require $3,396,692 in salaries and equipment costs for a total budget of $4,694,503.
The transportation budget with salaries and equipment represents an 8.26 percent increase from 2014-15, though other costs have only increased $115,186 in the last year, he said.
Transportation expenditures include approximately $200,000 for parts, tires and lubricant, up from $186,500 in 2014-15 due to increases in prices from year to year, Shoob said.
Repair costs for buses are also expected to jump from $54,500 in 2014-15 to $60,000 in 2015-16 due to increased necessity for vehicle repairs, he added.
Special education travel has been budgeted to increase $44,591 and private school busing is projected to increase $39,270, Shoob said, because Roslyn’s bus fleet has been unable to accommodate the growing number of students requiring out-of-district transportation.
The district plans to lease three diesel vans and two large buses to replace vehicles that are nearing or have exceeded 100,000 miles, Shoob said. It would be the second consecutive year that Roslyn has replaced vehicles in this manner.
The transportation budget also includes the allocation of $110,000 for the rental of off-campus parking space to store its bus fleet, he added.
Roslyn is anticipating $77,500 in revenue from the 2014-15 school year from transportation contracts from the North Shore, East Williston, Herricks and Carle Place school districts.
Facilities
Kevin Carpenter, the district’s assistant to the superintendent for operations, said Roslyn’s projected $697,000 electrical costs account for 25 percent of his budget, the largest of any line item, which increased from $2,681,844 in 2014-15.
Other projected utility costs, such as natural gas ($266,000) and fuel oil ($285,000), each take up 10 percent of the facilities budget but have decreased since last year, he said.
One of the primary increases to the budget, Carpenter said, was a $357,910 expenditure for contract services, which he listed as kitchen hood and exhaust cleaning, plumbing and heating, boiler and burner, fire extinguisher, security and burglary alarm, sprinklers, cesspools, HVAC, fire alarms, exterminating, elevator, generator, the scanning of district blueprints and licensing with the Federal Communications Commission.
Though building repair costs decreased to $221,200 from 2014-15, the figure still takes up 8 percent of the overall facilities budget.
“We’re doing more work,” he said. “It’s just that simple.”
The district has also ended its lease on the Annex building located at 440 Harbor Hill Road, which houses its adult education program and other offices. Roslyn allocated $66,000 for lease of the building in 2014-15.
