By Anthony Rifilato
, with school officials aiming to keep costs down while maintaining current programs a year after the current budget passed by the slimmest of margins.
The board adopted the $105.8 million budget, a nearly $6 million increase over the current spending plan, on March 28. It is 5.97 percent larger than the 2006-07 budget, which passed by only five votes last year.
School officials said that the plan is responsible, and maintains all current programs and services for students with very few additions. "Our budget is a bare-bones budget," board member B.A. Schoen said after its adoption. "We're not adding programs."
The State Education Department announced that Baldwin would receive $23.6 million in state aid earlier this week, following a deal between state senators and Gov. Eliot Spitzer that netted Long Island more than $205 million in additional education aid. Baldwin received more than $1.5 million over last year's school aid, said Tom Dunham, an aide to Senator Dean Skelos. Before those figures were announced, board members said that any additional aid would be used to reduce the tax levy.
"Certainly it seems that we'll get more money than we estimated," said school board President James Scannell. "We always make that pledge to the community that we'll use it to offset the tax levy." Initially, Baldwin's share of the state school aid was projected to be $22.3 million, and though school officials said they expected an increase, the new figure surpassed their projections, which Schoen said was welcome news. "We added $132,000, but we got more," he said.
The program portion of the budget - which includes teachers' salaries and special education costs - increased by $5.4 million, to a total of $81.3. The 7.2 percent increase would allow for more professional development for teachers in math and literacy, as well as a kindergarten summer screening program, among other initiatives.
The budget's program portion also contains funding that would reduce the district's reliance on contracted services for special education in language and speech and hearing and thereby save money, Superintendent Robert Britto said in a statement.
Teaching salaries are up $1.6 million this year, to $37.5 million, and with the teachers' contract in Baldwin set to expire in July, contract negotiations are under way. In the proposed budget, the district has allotted "enough money to cover a reasonable raise for the teachers," Scannell said. "We do have money built into the budget for a reasonable raise."
Aside from those salaries and other contractual obligations, many of the increases cover Social Security, health and retirement costs and insurance, mandates that are out of the district's control, officials said. For instance, benefits in the program portion of the budget are up $754,000, to $15 million.
"In just about all of these areas, we have no way of negotiating a rate," said Frank Fiumano, the district's assistant superintendent for business.
There are other budgetary increases as well. "Besides salaries, I would say the biggest increases would have to be special education and occupational education," Fiumano said after the meeting. "It goes up based on need, and as more children become classified, you have to provide the service and instruction."
Occupational education is up $542,000 to $1.4 million, while pupil services are up $1.4 million to $12 million.
The initial budget proposal was $106.4 million, but administrators and the school board made some significant cuts to proposed programs and services that will not affect current programs. For instance, professional development allocations were trimmed by $8,600, while special education additions were scaled back by $116,500. Scannell also said that administrators and board members worked to consolidate three bus routes in the district, resulting in a savings of $150,000.
"We wanted to find reductions that had no impact on students," Fiumano said, explaining that board members requested such cuts. "It takes us to a better number that we're a little more comfortable with."
Board members said that each year they try to assemble a budget that is fiscally responsible while maintaining programs for students - "It's the same balancing act all the time," Schoen said - but school officials said they always kept in mind how close last year's vote was. After the budget passed, Britto attended Chamber of Commerce meetings and other civic functions to explain its details to residents.
If the proposed budget is defeated, there will surely be cuts, school officials said. "If the first vote doesn't pass, the board could then put up the same budget, a reduced budget, or go straight to contingency," Fiumano said after the meeting. "[Under contingency] we'd have to remove one and a half million dollars from the budget, which will impact programs."
Schoen said that services such as special education would not be cut because of federal mandates, but programs such as the Baldwin Police Activities League and Little League would be hurt. "PAL and Little League, goodbye," Schoen said. "They'd lose access to our facilities, and the cost of their access to our facilities would go up. They wouldn't be able to do what they're doing now."
Scannell said that if the budget did not pass, the board would hold public deliberations to determine where some cuts could be made. "The magnitude of the cuts that would need to be made if we went to a contingency budget would significantly impact programs," he said. "I'm really hopeful, because the Baldwin community has always been supportive of the schools, and the board is doing the best that it can."
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