By:JOSEPH KELLARD
The district unveiled its $24.7 million budget, representing a 4.9 percent increase from last year and containing significant increases in salaries and benefits, Price said. While the proposed budget has no new major initiatives, the district will maintain "an environment that is conducive to academic growth for our children," he added.
Overall, 45 percent of the budget is directed to salaries, 14 percent to benefits, 20 percent to tuition for the district's 300 high school students and 6 percent to tuition for special education students who attend private schools or BOCES. The budget increases total employee benefits by 49 percent, salaries by 36 percent, and transportation by 15 percent.
"Benefits have gone up significantly," Price said, pointing out that health insurance coverage has increased by 13 to 15 percent each year and will grow by $235,000, or 17 percent, in the 2004-05 budget.
"We had an increase in medical insurance in 2004, and we're going to have another increase in January 2005," Price said. "We have no idea what that's going to be because medical insurance is on a different fiscal year than we are. So we're projecting that increase now."
The increase in transportation costs reflects the district's need to provide more vehicles to drive special education and private school students to various locations, the purchase of new buses, and rising labor and fuel costs, Price said.
Moreover, $1,040,143 of the budget will go toward servicing bonds the district sold in 1997 for capital improvements and in 2000 for the construction of the new library on Long Beach Road.
"These things are almost all contractual obligations," the superintendent said about what he called the budget's big-ticket items. He stressed that the district must comply with and budget for all ongoing mandates, including testing, data analysis and various other measures required by the new state and federal regulations under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Price also stressed that while the budget will not fund any new major initiatives -- such as a long-term plan to upgrade technological programs and hardware -- the district will maintain lower class sizes, instructional materials and staff, academic support services for all students, and "aggressive" maintenance of all buildings.
"It's not that we don't have any direction for any long-range initiatives this year, because we may have others next year," Price told the Herald. "But with this budget we will maintain what we have and not fall behind."
Island Park maintains the county's lowest average elementary-school class size (17 students per class) and Nassau's sixth-lowest average kindergarten class size.
"Other districts are trying to reach the level of class size we are at now, and we're very proud of that," Price said, claiming that low class size "really enhances instruction."
Price talked about efforts the district has made to save money. The district enrolled five special-education students entering the school system in the Hegarty School instead of BOCES, where it could spend up to $50,000 per student. By creating positions for another teacher and assistant teacher (at a cost of about $70,000 a year) the district was able to reduce the per-student cost by roughly $30,000.
"When you're talking about four or five children who we can spend $50,000 a year on, you can see the savings right there," Price said. "It allowed us to save some money, but it's not just an issue of money. These kids are really excelling at our school."
Price concluded that no matter how the budget is broken down, "the money is going to programs for kids. This is a kid-oriented budget."
Island Park residents will vote on the budget on May 18.
