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Fair Malverne budget meeting set for May 14
Plan will require only majority to pass
Malverne voters will have one final chance to discuss next year’s school spending plan on May 14, a week prior to the budget and school board trustee vote on May 21.
The spending plan, which was developed by school district staff and refined with the help of community input, will increase property taxes by a total of $1.4 million, or 3.66 percent, matching the district’s tax levy increase cap, said Thomas McDaid, the district’s business manager.
The tax increase, which McDaid called “the second lowest percentage increase in 15 years,” means that the approval of no more than a simple majority of voters will be needed for the budget to pass.
Thanks to an increase of 7.18 percent in state aid and a jump of nearly 323 percent in building aid, the amount of nontax revenue the district will need next year will fall almost 16 percent from this year’s $618,000, to $520,000.
One major new expenditure, totaling $200,000 and to be funded by district reserves, will be the purchase of technology necessary to meet the mandates of the state’s Partnership for Readiness for College and Careers initiative, in which students take a series of 10 tests each year. The tests will no longer utilize pencils and paper, but instead will require students to use computers or tablets.
Approximately $175,000 will be cut from the administrative budget, but officials said that the budget will have little impact on staffing. One elementary teacher and one social worker will be cut, one special-education teacher will be added, and expenses will be trimmed in the English, foreign language, physical education, business and music departments, while slightly more money will be made available for reading instruction.
School officials said they are confident that the budget will be approved. If it is not, however, it can be resubmitted, either in original form or revised, to the voters on June 18. If it were to fail again, officials explained, the district would be forced by state law to adopt a contingency spending plan and cut $1.42 million more.
