By Andrew Coen
District officials have crafted their recommended budget proposal, which they hope will lead to the first passage by voters since a re-vote in June of 2002 was approved by 14 votes and thus avoid a fourth straight year of austerity. A budget has not been approved in district 15 on it's first attempt since 2001 when the proposal passed by 90 votes.
The $93.1 million budget proposal which the school board will review before coming up with a final adoption on April 4 carries a 5.3 percent increase over the current contingency budget of $88.4 million. The 5.3 percent increase is as low an increase as the district could come up with in order to make sure there are no cuts in programs, according to assistant superintendent for business Frank Ruggiero.
"We're calling it a maintenance budget," said Ruggiero, who has been business chief in Lawrence since last October. "It provides a continuance of what we have in there today."
The proposed budget is not much higher than what a contingency budget would be, which, according to district officials, would carry around a 4 percent increase.
"I'm going to support [the recommended budget] because there are no cuts in programs," said school board president Frank Parise. "Hopefully we will get board support for it.
Ruggiero said that a good amount of the budget hike is attributed to state mandated salary increases in health benefits, special education and fuel costs and an expected flat amount of state aid from Albany. District officials estimate the tax levy (amount of budget to be raised in taxes) for the proposed budget to be a 5.7 percent increase if adopted. The tax rate increase was not yet known, according to Ruggiero.
The recommended budget according
to Ruggiero includes increases in the amounts of:
n $855,000 for benefits;
n $724,000 for facilities;
n $1.8 million for special education;
n $392,000 for transportation;
n $258,000 in health and welfare costs for non public schools .
There are no cuts to any programs, but a net loss of four staff members in the budget proposal, district officials said.
The budget is scheduled to be adopted at the April 4 school board meeting at 8 p.m. at Lawrence Middle School. The state deadline for coming up with a final budget proposal is April 20, but due to the Passover and Easter holiday this year, it was decided to adopt it sooner according to district officials. Voters will have the final say when they cast their ballots on May 16.
District officials have worked hard to educate voters about factors attributing the budget proposal by giving presentations to residents in Atlantic Beach, Inwood and meetings planned in Cedarhurst and at the Lawrence Association. "Anything from a fire company to a group of three people who want to have coffee we'd be glad to sit down and discuss the budget," said Ruggiero. "If there are 18,000 registered voters and 18,000 come out and vote I will be happy regardless of the outcome."
Comments about this story? acoen@liherald.com or 516-569-4000 ext. 210.
