North Shore School District considers hiring consultant

The North Shore School District is facing another tight fiscal year due to the aftershocks of the LIPA deal, and the district’s administration has been working to find ways to reduce costs without taking away from the students’ educational experiences. At the last four board meetings, the Board of Education has even discussed the possibility of hiring an outside consultant to help find inefficiencies and reduce spending in the district.

For context, the district reached a deal with the Long Island Power Authority in 2022 following a multi-year legal battle with the company. As LIPA was abandoning the Glenwood Landing power plant, the district faced, and continues to grapple with, the loss of roughly $29 million in annual revenue from taxes from the plant.

While Chris Zublionis, the superintendent of schools, and his administration have been looking at and discussing different means to reduce costs without compromising the district’s programs, one suggestion that has been floating around is to bring in an outside consultant. At the Oct. 12 meeting, board member Marianne Russo suggested that the district could benefit from getting a fresh set of eyes to look at the budget.

“I do think that if we brought in some sort of outside consultant that they may find efficiencies that maybe none of us have thought about, resources that maybe none of us are aware of,” Russo said. “I think that it would be helpful and I think that at the end of the day there are some programs that unfortunately we’re going to have to look at very carefully and see if there is a more cost-effective way of doing it.”

Not every member of the board agreed with Russo that hiring an outside consultant was the best way to help save money in the school district, or at least at this current time. Trustee Maria Mosca said that, while she would support the idea if Chris Zublionis, the superintendent of schools, and his team say that they believe it is necessary, she felt that until the administration requested it they should continue discussing the idea.

“The cost obviously is something that we have to keep an eye on, not just in dollars but in employee power. These kinds of reviews means chunks of time on the part of the hiring institution, requiring many hours of interviews and data gathering of an already stretched workforce,” Mosca said. “I do support the idea or concept, bottom line, if Dr. Z (Zublionis) and his leadership team feel it’s helpful to their efforts.”

There is at least one portion of the community who appears to support the idea of hiring an outside consultant. North Shore Residents For Fiscal Responsibility, a Facebook group of residents who claim the district overspends and have opposed passing the budget for the last several years, have sent several emails between Oct. 8 and 10 encouraging taxpayers in the district to email the Board of Education and Zublionis and express support for an independent review of the district’s budget.

“Many of the BOE Trustees have thrown cold water on the idea of an outside review,” part of the email read. “As you know North Shore has one of the highest cost per student on Long Island and this community deserves an outside review.”

Dr. Andrea Macari, the board president, explained at the Oct. 12 meeting that while there could be some benefit to hiring an outside consultant, the district had not budgeted for a consultant this year. Instead she suggested that it may be something worth considering for the coming years, and that in the meantime the board members, administrators and district residents could continue to discuss and work on ways to cut costs in the district.

“I think we can think about it more in terms of the long term,” Macari said. “Maybe it’s something that we put into the budget we’re doing now for next year, and maybe that gives us some time to really think about what is the value added, what would be the return on the on the investment, and what could this consultant do to go above and beyond our other audits.”