Rockville Centre School Board adopts proposed 2020-21 budget

The Rockville Centre Board of Education adopted the proposed $122.86 million budget for the 2020-21 school year on May 6, a budget that keeps all current programs. The budget vote and trustee election will be done by mail; ballots will be mailed to residents and must be returned to the district clerk by June 9.

“I think it’s very important that the public understand that voting will be very different year than it has been in the past,” Superintendent Dr. William Johnson said, “and is going to rely exclusively on mail-in votes.”

Additionally, the deadline for candidates to submit petitions for the Board of Education has been extended to May 11, and the governor waived the signature requirement. Anyone interested should contact the district clerk. Voters will elect two candidates; the terms of Board President Tara Hackett and Vice President Susan McNulty are expiring. Hackett is seeking reelection.

The adopted budget reflects a 2.19 percent increase over the current year, and while the district was able to balance the budget, Assistant Superintendent for Business Robert Bartels cautioned that cuts to state aid could come down the line.

“We have to operate under the assumption that school is going to be in place next year as it normally would,” Bartels said. “There could be changes…but, we have to plan for a regular school year.”

He said the district’s tax levy is 2.01 percent, which is under the tax cap of 2.03 percent this year. A regular 50 percent majority is needed to pass the budget.

“We have balanced our budget with state aid and other sources of revenue,” Bartels said.

The biggest revenue increases come from nonresident tuitions for the CORE and RISE programs, which are attended by special education students from other districts.

“We do have concerns about state aid,” Bartels said. He explained that the state’s proposal includes a pandemic adjustment of about $420,000 for the district – the amount the state plans to be able to provide the school after reimbursement from the federal government.

“If that money is not refunded, that is how much we could lose in the general state aid formulas,” Bartels said. “We feel we could absorb that amount and are already making plans on what we could do within the budget to mitigate that going forward.”

However, he said, the bigger issue faced by district is a potential cut of up to 20 percent in state aid, which the governor has warned could happen if the state does not receive federal aid.

“That would mean we would have cuts of $2.6 million,” Bartels said, “and that is something that we wouldn’t be able to deal with too easily.”

To prepare for this possibility, the district will delay certain purchases — such as for vehicles, conferences, new hires and some school supplies — until the second half of the year, “until we can be assured that our revenue streams will be whole,” Bartels said. In addition, he said, the district will increase its reserves going into next year.

“With the shutdown of the schools, we’re going to be able to put quite a bit into our reserves,” Bartels said, noting that money from clubs and sports that was not spent can be put into the fund balance. “We’re hoping that will fully cover any shortfalls in revenue from the state for next year.”

Bartels also discussed what would happen if the budget does not pass. For one thing, he said, the district would go to a contingency budget, which means there would be no tax levy increase.

“We would have to cut about $2 million from the budget, and that would cut into staff in some shape or facet,” Bartels said. “We really don’t want to have to do that.”

A defeated budget also means that the district would not be able to purchase new equipment and outside community groups would not be allowed to use the facilities.

A final budget hearing will be held on May 27. The district is not permitted to mail out any materials until after the hearing, which is less than two weeks before election day.

“It’s very critical everyone gets their absentee ballots in,” Bartels said.

On May 20, at 7 p.m., the board will host a virtual meet and greet with June Chang, who will take over as superintendent on July 1. Hackett said community members will have an opportunity to ask questions and more details will be available on the district’s web site.