By Laura Lane
State Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr., a Republican from Merrick, said the Board of Education could rescind, or abolish, the fund without the Legislature's OK, but the district should then use it for taxpayer relief, in Fuschillo's opinion. In that case, the board could not, by law, use it for specific projects.
The reserve fund, created in March 2003, is used to pay employees' unused sick and vacation days when they retire. At last week's meeting, John Rossi, the school board's vice president, called for a vote to rescind the fund. "We know the fund is overfunded... ." Rossi said. "I'm convinced only the board will be able to get this moving. We should rescind the March 2003 resolution and get the money out of this reserve."
When the board created the fund, members believed that it could, and would, be used to pay future school retirees' health care benefits. However, according to municipal law, it cannot. "The board realized that we were wrong, and that this money can only be used for sick and vacation days," said Rossi in a phone interview, adding that if trustees had known that in the beginning, they would have created a smaller fund. "We have old windows in our schools, need a boiler at Camp Avenue [Elementary School] and have books for our children that are 12 to 13 years old. We need all of these things, and we're sitting on 3 million dollars."
In the past 10 months, the district's attorney, Albert D'Agostino, has sought help from the state comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli. D'Agostino received information clarifying municipal law, which confirmed that district officials had indeed misunderstood the fund's purpose at the outset.
Linda Fuller, the Board of Education president, has called and written to Fuschillo. Trustees are asking the senator to write legislation that would modify the municipal law to allow them to take money out of the fund for purposes other than retirees' unused sick and vacation days. "Senator Fuschillo hasn't responded positively or negatively," Middendorf said at the board meeting. "I think until we have a response from him, we shouldn't do anything."
Fuller declined to discuss details of her communications with Fuschillo, and did not say what the district's attorney had advised trustees. She tried to move the meeting into executive session twice to discuss the matter further.
Fuschillo said in a phone interview that he spoke with Rossi and Trustee John Pinto about the fund months ago in his office. "We talked about the account, and I was able to get the state comptroller on the phone," Fuschillo said. "Before that meeting, I'd received a letter from Linda Fuller, and I've been communicating only with her. I spoke to her two weeks ago."
Fuschillo said he suggested to Fuller that the money be used for taxpayer relief. "They can rescind the account on their own, but they need legislation to use it for specific purposes," he explained. "I want to make the legislation specific. I'm reaching out to trustees now to set up a meeting in my office, but the legislation would have to be [introduced] in the legislative session in January."
David Feller, the North Merrick School District superintendent, said, "Mr. Rossi requested that the proposal [to rescind the fund] be tabled pending additional outreach to Senator Fuschillo to get additional clarification. Hopefully, we'll have an update by the next meeting."
Susan Grippa, president of the Old Mill Road Elementary School PTA, said after the meeting that she is frustrated by this issue. "I don't think the community understands that the money is sitting there in the fund, doing nothing," Grippa said.
Comments about this story? LLane@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
