Gunther parents: Keep our school open

In a hearing that began at 7 p.m. and ran into the middle of the night, the North Bellmore Board of Education heard testimony last Thursday from a long line of angry parents pleading with district officials to keep Gunther Elementary School open.

Gunther is slated for possible closure in June next year. Board President Grace Cramsie said it appears impossible to maintain all of North Bellmore’s six elementary schools after New York State imposed a 2 percent property-tax levy cap on local municipalities, starting in 2012.

To stay within the cap, the district must slash $1.8 million to $2.3 million from its 2012-13 budget. Closing Gunther would save the district an estimated $950,000, according to North Bellmore Superintendent Arnold Goldstein. Another $350,000 to $400,000 could be saved if the district were to eliminate busing. Beyond that, programmatic cuts may be necessary, according to officials.

Toni Cincotta, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, explained that the district’s 2012-13 budget can rise by no more than $600,000 under Governor Cuomo’s tax cap, from a little over $48 million to $48.6 million. The trouble, Goldstein noted a number of times, is that the district’s set costs –– retirement and health benefits, electricity and heating –– are predicted to increase by considerably more than the allowable $600,000 cap, so cuts are inevitable. Closing a school would give the district at least half of the necessary cuts.

The North Bellmore School District takes in part of North Merrick, where Park Avenue Elementary School is located. An estimated 200 parents and residents crammed Saw Mill Road Elementary School’s cafeteria for the Dec. 8 hearing.

Goldstein said that district officials are not anticipating a dramatic increase in state aid in 2012-13, which would help reduce the tax levy and better enable the district to meet the cap. “If you can’t get it on the revenue side,” he said, “you must cut on the expenditure side.”