By NANCY HILER
Narby said the originally estimated tax levy rate increase of 3.93 percent would be reduced to 1.20 percent. It is the levy that establishes the tax calculation.
"This isn¹t anything we could have predicted,² Bellmore Superintendent of Schools Sheldon Dumain said during the meeting. He explained that an estimated levy is set every year, but the actual one cannot be determined until August, once the district closes its financial books for the school year.
The reduction gives the Bellmore one of the lowest tax-levy rates in the county, Narby said. ³That¹s fantastic, just marvelous,² board Trustee Jay Breakstone commented.
Dumain said the surplus was generated in three ways:
€ Higher than anticipated revenue stemming from two sides of one financial coin a low borrowing rate owing to a strong credit rating and a higher-than-expected rate of return on investments.
€ Additional state aid in the form of increased tuition provided to the district as result of its winning an appeal dating back two years ago.
€ Funds returned through Board of Cooperative Educational Services aid that the district had awaited since the 2004-05 school year.
The district¹s budget figure ‹ $26,012,089 needed
for its 2006-2007 spending plan, as proposed and approved in a May community vote ‹does not change. In short, the district needs to spend the same amount of money to support its approved budget, but owing to the revenue increase that caused the levy reduction, fewer of those dollars now need to come from taxpayers.
For a taxpayer owning the county¹s average home assessed at $512,000 in Bellmore, the tax increase this year will be $87.02, rather than the estimated $185.65, a $99.45 savings per household.
Subhead: No name for 'gifted' program
At the August meeting, the possible change of the district¹s familiarly called ³gifted² program was raised, an idea that was discussed at the two previous board meetings. Trustee Ted Tanenbaum said that the board¹s decision was to refer to the program by ³no name² in any correspondence or literature and ³to designate the class only by the teacher¹s name.²
The name review came at the request of a parent who said she
received a letter last spring indicating that the children in the third
grade ³would soon be undergoing testing for the gifted program.² The program consists of self-contained classes for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students who score high in IQ and other academic tests, the criteria used to determine student eligibility. ³We don¹t want our school district to be in the Dark Ages,² the parent, who did not wish to be identified, said during the July 6 board meeting. ³The term Œgifted¹ is an old-fashioned name,² she said.
The parent said later in a telephone interview, ³We are one of the last school districts to use this name, a name that has the connotation of being born special.² Acknowledging that natural comparisons and competition among children occurs, she also said she felt that removing the word ³gifted² would allow children to see the program as ³an alternative program for learning,² rather than it having the ³connotation of superiority or privilege² for a select group of children. She said she was not asking for the program itself to be reevaluated or changed in any way.
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