Oceanside School District unveils finalized budget

The third Oceanside School District budget workshop for 2011-12, held March 21 at School 3, focused on teaching staffs and administration, which Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown has called the “greatest asset” to the district.

The district is proposing a budget increase of 1.98 percent for next year, to $131.1 million from the current spending plan of $128.6 million. Because of state aid cuts for the district of nearly $2.3 million in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget, along with a decline in teaching staff and student enrollment, Oceanside will be forced to do more with less next year, though Brown insisted last week that the district will succeed.

“We’ll have approximately 29 fewer teachers next year,” he said, explaining that few teachers will be fired thanks to a retirement incentive package that will save the district approximately $3 million.

“It’s a lot,” Brown said of the board’s challenge. “But we’ve done it in a way that we feel it won’t impact children negatively … Teachers will be asked to be even more productive next year. We’re going to be asking them to work harder and smarter and try to save the taxpayers as much money as possible.”

As the teaching roster dwindles next year, student enrollment will also decline by about 100, Brown said. Approximately 500 seniors will graduate from the high school in June, and only 360 children have signed up for kindergarten classes so far. There will be two fewer kindergarten classes as a result, Brown said, and two staff positions will be cut. He also said that less funding for teacher salaries and the kindergarten classes would free up some money for the district — approximately $314,000 — and allow it to be more flexible to reorganize some staff and hire additional teachers.