A big increase to start

The Oceanside School District kicked off its months-long budget process with its first workshop on Jan. 24, highlighting select pages from the 2011-12 spending plan, of which the biggest change was a nearly $3.5 million increase in employee benefit contributions.

Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown outlined many increases — and decreases — in spending the district was proposing for next year. The largest increase presented was nearly $3.5 million — 14.65 percent — in the district’s expenditures for employee benefits, the majority of which comes from the teachers’ retirement system (a nearly $2.2 million increase) and health insurance (almost a $1.4 million increase).

“Obviously the cost of health insurance is going up,” Brown said. “The items on this page alone are higher than the [proposed] two percent tax cap. ”

Brown, along with Assistant Superintendent for Business Louis Frontario, presented select pages from the budget rather than the entire spending plan.

“We won’t have a complete budget until March when we see what the rules are that Albany is negotiating [school districts] to live with,” Brown said. “We haven’t waited for this crisis … we still have retirement reserve funds for the difficult financial times. ”

Brown and Frontario were confident in spite of potential money restrictions for next year. And together they outlined the opening pages of their budget in front of more than one hundred Oceanside residents, business owners and school district representatives who met last week inside the Oceanside Middle School auditorium.

There, the budget discussions commenced with a presentation of the first page of the packet: non-instructional printing equipment, which is expected to rise slightly, along with costs charged by BOCES for computer-related storage data. Frontario discussed these obligated fees as flat and said, “Nassau BOCES exists… These are administrative costs we have.”

Frontario continued the budget workshop presentation by discussing student transportation costs, which will increase one half percent. Bus matrons will jump as well, due to the fact that during the 2009-2010 school year, the American Recover and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funded many employees. Frontario said, however, that the district was still saving plenty of money by not transporting past ninth grade, and that services contracts with school district transportation workers were still favorable.

The budget for community services and recreation was next on the budget agenda: “We’re very proud and happy to have this,” Frontario said. He pointed out that community programs were running well, and that the school district budgeted significantly less for next year. Non-instructional leadership salaries for youth and senior programs — approximately $70,000 worth of the budget fat — was moved from community services to programs funded by user fees in the Department of Community Activities (DOCA)

“We’ve moved a lot of money around,” Brown and Frontario said when reaching this section of the budget.

After outlining the various financial changes to the school district budget for its plant and facilities — which included rising costs for fuel, electricity, water and gas — Frontario and Brown discussed what they thought was an important part of the budget packet: debt services. He outlined the various bonds the district has. Serial bonds went up marginally for next year, Frontario said, while interest on them declined. “We have excellent credit in municipal markets,” the assistant superintendent said. The district cut over $250,000 — over 21 percent — from its bonds and tax anticipation notices.

Among the district’s new installment purchases is a new IP Telephony system which will cost approximately $150,000 and replace the existing telephone system.

Frontario added that the budget plan was not a “perfect science,” and changes could still arise. But despite concerns and a predicted decline in state aid, he and Brown assured attendees at the meeting that the school district was prepared to use its reserve funds if necessary, especially if the state passes a tax cap.

“It should be very interesting to watch,” Brown said.

The next budget workshop is scheduled at 8 p.m. on Feb. 28 at School 4.