By Andrew Hackmack and Anthony Bottan
Voters will head to the polls on Tuesday.
District officials say they are sensitive to the economic issues facing homeowners, and are trying to balance that with their efforts to provide students with a first-class education.
District 13
The 1.39 percent budget increase is the lowest in more than a decade, Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Lison said. The proposed spending plan, just under $41 million, eliminates two classroom teacher positions, but, Lison said, that is based on changes in enrollment, and will not affect class sizes.
The tax levy is expected to increase by 1.09 percent, which will mean an additional $29 in elementary school taxes for the average homeowner.
"We're very please that we were able to - in what started out as a very challenging year - preserve the core programs and at the same time be mindful of the community's budget," Lison said.
The district will receive about $10.5 million in state aid next year, which is higher than Gov. David Paterson's initial proposal. Lison said the district has also seen a reduction in its health insurance rates and special education costs. "Things happened along the way that were just good for us," she said.
She added that district officials were prepared to look at possible program cuts for the coming year but were fortunate it didn't come to that. However, she said, the forecast for the future is cloudy. "The prediction is it's going to be a rough two or three more years," Lison concluded.
District 24
The average homeowner in District 24 is expected to see no change in taxes for next year, or even a slight decrease, under the proposed $26.2 million spending plan. It is a 2.66 percent increase over the current budget.
The Board of Education did approve some cuts for the coming year, including eliminating Spanish for second-, third- and fourth-graders, ending keyboarding classes and reducing several full-time aides to part-time.
Superintendent Dr. Ed Fale said that despite the cuts, the core education program remains intact. "The interest of the children in the community must come first," he said.
The impact of the stock market slide could be felt in a year or two, Fale said, when the district is likely to see increase costs for funding retirement benefits. Because of the economic uncertainty, he said, district officials will continue to be extra vigilant when it comes to spending. "This is the first time that any of us have ever lived through a large global recession," he said.
District 30
"One dollar a week" is how much school taxes will increase next year, Superintendent Dr. Elaine Kanas said. The district's proposed $30.6 million spending plan is 4.62 percent larger than the current budget. However, the tax levy will increase by only 2.36 percent.
"It's the lowest budget-to-budget and tax levy increases in the past four years," Kanas said. "The board has been very sensitive to the current economic climate."
The budget includes funding for new math programming as well as for the second phase of the six-year technology plan. It will also provide for an enhanced summer school program that will reduce the student-to-teacher ratio. A consultant will be hired to review the science curriculum to enhance the program for the 2010-11 school year.
The one program being eliminated is the Saturday Academy, which prepares students for the English Language Arts assessment. Kanas said the district will look for other ways to help students prepare for the exam.
The budget increase is greater than would be allowed by a contingency budget, which caps the increase at 4 percent. If the budget were to fail, school officials would have to reduce spending by more than $400,000. "We really hope that doesn't happen," Kanas said. "If we had to cut that amount of money, we'd really have to go back to the drawing board."
Central High School District
The Board of Education's $99.85 million budget is 3.46 percent larger than this year's spending plan, and the tax levy increase is 1.98 percent. "There is no doubt that the budget increase and the tax levy increase is considerably less than in previous years," Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marc Bernstein said.
The high school portion of taxes, for the average homeowner, will increase by $38.84 in District 13, $71.20 in District 24 and $50.51 in District 30.
The proposed budget includes a little less than $1 million in cuts: the summer driver's education program, the junior varsity "B" teams, some vacant civil service positions, the phys. ed. department chairperson at Memorial Junior High School and a part-time psychologist.
The Board of Education voted to use $350,000 of the $1.85 million in restored state aid to offset a few of Bernstein's recommended cuts. The school programs the board voted to partially restore included funding for the teachers' center, the English as a Second Language "push-in" program, $113,000 in school supplies and sports equipment, and some ninth- and 10th-grade electives.
One of the programs that Bernstein initially proposed cutting from the budget was a one-semester SAT prep course, offered as an elective. But after opposition from parents, Bernstein proposed an alternative. The district will continue offering the course, he said, still taught by district teachers, but it will use commercial material instead of Princeton Review resources.
Comments about this story? AHackmack@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
