Districts struggle with thin budgets

With state school aid still a question, recent 2010-11 budget talks for local elementary districts have hardly been easy. Like other districts across the state, the Franklin Square and Elmont elementary districts are having to make some tough decisions, including facing the possibility of increasing class size by cutting teachers.

Franklin Square Board of Education President Joe Armocida said the district is still in the thick of the process, and he wasn’t sure what kind of impact the possible lack of state education aid might have on taxpayers. “At this point in time, there are a lot of unknowns as to what exactly state aid is going to be,” Armocida said.

If Gov. David Paterson’s budget proposal is unchanged, Franklin Square could lose out on more than $300,000 in state funds. “Basically,” said Armocida, “everybody’s concerned about making sure we don’t affect the students.”

Franklin Square’s interim superintendent, Anthony Pecorale, said that if education aid doesn’t increase, some teachers at the low end of the totem pole could likely face being laid off. “Those who are on the bubble are being told that there may not be jobs for them,” Pecorale said. “I could possibly lose as many as seven or eight.”

Pecorale added that the fundamental problem for Franklin Square is that cutting salaries is the most efficient way to make up large budget gaps. “You’re not going to make up the kind of money we need to make up [cutting] paper clips, paper and pencils and that kind of thing,” he said. “The place where you’re going to find savings is personnel.”

Pecorale said that district officials had been hopeful that some teachers would agree to accept offered retirement packages, but there were no takers. “The mood out there is to hang on to your job until we get through this recession,” he said. “We had hoped to have four to five teachers take the retirement incentive. We got turned down flat.”