By JOSEPH KELLARD
Oceanside residents will vote on a $105.4 million budget for 2005-06, representing a 6.4 percent increase over the current budget, while their Island Park counterparts will consider a proposed $26.3 million 2005-06 budget, a 6.5 percent increase over the current plan.
"We just got our adjusted-base proportions," said Island Park Superintendent Dr. Ed Price, "so I haven't yet worked out exactly [how much the budget may increase taxes for the average homeowner]." Price said that according to some of the tentative data he has used in this area, "If you take what [the Nassau County Department of Assessors] calls an average assessed-valued house ... it looks like actually the amount of tax on an average house could go down. But that's just tentative data."
Price added that the tax levy for Island Park is $6.9 million, "and how that plays out in these property classes is going to vary."
What Price said he does know is that his budget must include a 1 percent increase for educational programs for seven severely disabled children admitted to the Bayview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Austin Boulevard. State law requires the district to place these children in BOCES programs or schools for the disabled in neighboring towns.
Because these students live outside the district - some in New York City - the responsibility for placing them and funding these programs remains a matter for the courts. Island Park must nonetheless budget for the possibility that it may have to provide for their education. "If we don't have to spend this money, then we'll put that money in a future budget to help offset taxes," said Price. "That's the only responsible thing I or the board can do."
Price is quick to point out that state mandates for special education are particularly difficult for a relatively small district such as Island Park. "Five special-education students here in Island Park is a significant percentage of our student body," he said, adding that the district works to place such students in its regular programs "whenever we can."
The president of the Oceanside school board, Sue Graham, and Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown both cited "skyrocketing" costs in health insurance and utilities, and increases in the teachers' retirement system, as making up the bulk of the budget's increases. "These three seem to be rising much more than that rate of inflation," Graham said.
Brown noted that this year's budget maintains all of its programs, and in justifying the budget he underscored such factors as the rate at which students are graduating with Regents diplomas, which was at a record-high 83 percent last year, and that Oceanside spends about $3,000 less per pupil than the county average of about $17,000.
"I'm confident," Brown said, "that we worked really hard to produce a budget that provides for students to get the education they need to become productive members of society and that is fair to the taxpayers."
Graham pointed out that Oceanside's tax levy increase is 6.1 percent, when the county average is 7.9. "That's where I believe we are doing extremely well," she said.
Among the newer programs that Island Park's budget will fund is a seventh-grade Spanish program in addition to the eighth-grade class, and a new Spanish teacher. "This will enable our students to gain high school credits by taking Spanish both years, which we're not able to do now," Price said.
Two programs Island Park's budget will continue to fund are the district's phonics-based Foundations and its McMillian-McGraw Hill math, both of which were introduced last year. "These two programs are some of the major efforts we've made over the past year," Price said, adding that the district will also maintain its "very strong" specialized academic-intervention services in reading and math in both Hegarty Elementary School and Lincoln Orens Middle School.
Last year in Island Park, voters passed the district's budget by a 573-to-380 vote. In Oceanside, however, residents gave a thumbs-down to the $99.4 million budget, which represented an 8.6 increase over the previous year's budget, by a narrow 1,028-to-1,018 vote. Facing the possibility of having to revert to a $97 million contingency budget - which would have mandated cuts in educational and after-school programs - voters passed the same budget by a 2,778-to-2,117 margin a month later.
Beginning in September, Oceanside initiated measures to keep the community updated on budget and tax issues throughout the school year, which included offering budgetary information in each of its newsletters and administrators' talks to various community groups such as the Oceanside Civic Association.
Oceanside will hold its budget hearing on May 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the School 6 cafeteria, and its budget vote on May 17 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Island Park will hold its vote on the budget on the same date from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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