District 13 turning to its reserve fund

District 13 officials plan to use $2.1 million from surplus funds to help get through a difficult economic time and avoid major cuts to programs next year.

At a budget meeting on Feb. 9, school officials unveiled the tentative $42.5 million spending plan, which is expected to raise taxes 2.31 percent for homeowners. The proposed budget would eliminate a few teaching and aide positions.

With an expected drop in enrollment next year of about 70 students, three classroom teacher positions will likely be eliminated. Additionally, the district is looking to cut a gifted and talented teacher, a speech therapist, cut back another speech therapist, an ESL teacher, special education teacher and a psychologist to part-time, and cut four noon-hour aides. That’s a total of 11 positions likely gone for the 2011-12 school year.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Meredith Brosnan said that all reductions are based on student enrollment and the need for certain services. “Our enrollment is down and has been dropping every year,” she said, “and it is at the point where we can cut back a little on staff.”

Carol Hawkins, a teacher at the James A. Dever School and unit leader of the Valley Stream Teachers Association, asked the board to reconsider some of the staffing cuts that are planned.

Under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal, District 13 would lose more than $800,000 in state aid for next year. Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Lison said that they are counting on about $8.8 million from the state next year, which includes $352,000 in unused federal jobs money.

The loss of state aid is coupled with major increases to the district’s retirement and health insurance costs. Brosnan said that District 13 will have to pay about $1.1 million more into the state’s retirement fund, and an additional $500,000 for employee health care.

To make ends meet, the district will be using more than $2 million from its fund balance. That is a big increase from the $1.175 million the district used this year and last. Administrators had proposed taking $1.75 million from fund balance for next year, which includes money that will be left over from the current budget, plus existing savings the district has.

But board trustee Joseph DiSibio, staring at a $110 tax bill increase for the average homeowner, said he wanted to use more fund balance and reduce the tax impact. The rest of the board agreed and the expected tax impact is now a $73 increase for the average homeowner. That could change when the next tax rolls come out in April, or if the state Legislature improves the aid figure.

The district also has reduced its textbook costs by more than $100,000. A new science program began this year, Brosnan explained, which came with the one-time cost for new books.

DiSibio also called on the administration to complete a replacement of computers in fifth-grade classrooms. Initially, administrators budgeted enough to replace only some of the 7-year-old computers, with plans to replace the others next year. But DiSibio told school officials to find the remaining $21,000 somewhere else so all 60 computers could be upgraded at once. “I think we’ve come too far technologically speaking to take a step backward,” he said.

The budget also includes money for some capital projects. There is $101,000 set aside to replace part of the roof at Willow Road School, as well as money for new bathroom stall partitions at the James A. Dever, Howell Road and Wheeler Avenue schools.

The district is also setting aside $250,000 for blacktop replacement at Wheeler, a project being funded over three years. Brosnan said the hope is to complete that work, expected to cost about a half-million dollars, in the summer of 2012, along with replacing the handball court at Howell Road School.

Brosnan said the district will restructure its gifted and talented program for next year. Two teachers are being reduced to one, but she said enrollment there has declined in recent years. “We feel we can deliver a valuable program with one teacher,” she said.

The Board of Education is expected to adopt its proposed 2011-12 budget at the March 22 meeting.