By ALEX COSTELLO
The spending plan, which will be put to a vote on May 19, is $2.3 million larger than the current budget, the smallest increase in 25 years. The board approved an increase in the tax levy of just under $2.5 million — slightly higher than the budget increase because the district is counting on receiving $180,000 less in state aid next year than this year. District officials say they are erring on the side of caution, budgeting a state aid total that is smaller than the figure of $20.4 million released by the state Legislature.
“There’s a lot of dysfunction going on in Albany, and we don’t feel safe with the number that’s published,” said Assistant Superintendent of Business Louis Frontario. “So let’s say things ultimately do get settled — that money will go right into the fund balance, which will allow us to give the money back in the following year.”
The fund balance, essentially a reserve account, is the portion of district revenues that is used to reduce the tax levy. Frontario explained that money is added to it when the district receives more from its sources of revenue than expected or has fewer expenditures. If it gets more state aid than it budgets for, the surplus is added to the fund balance. The balance is currently $2.4 million.
“If we had zero fund balance, we’d have to wind up finding that money some other way,” Frontario said. “And generally speaking, the way to make it up would be in the tax levy.”
The fund balance is also used by the district for unanticipated expenses. "If you know your state aid is going to be $20 million, and you estimate $18 million for the purpose of setting the tax rate, you know you’re going to have an extra $2 million," said Dr. Herb Brown, superintendent of Oceanside schools. "That becomes the ‘rainy day’ fund. We’ve been doing that for 100 years, and every school district does the same thing."
Before factoring in the tax levy, the district will receive $22.1 million in revenues, most of which is state aid. The money from the fund balance is the second highest revenue total.
At the meeting, Brown outlined the staff changes planned for 2009-10. Three elementary teachers will be cut because there will be fewer classes, and one English, one math, one science and one social studies teacher are being let go at Oceanside High School for the same reason. There will also be two fewer math teachers at the middle school.
"We had three teachers retire and we’re not replacing them," Brown said. "And we had six teachers that were not doing a good job, and we told them they were not coming back. Nobody is being laid off or excessed from people we want to come back."
There will be two fewer custodians in the elementary schools, and the district will remove seven permanent substitute teachers at the elementary schools. The permanent substitutes come to school regardless of whether they are actually needed for the day, and are assigned substitute positions as they come up. They will be replaced by substitutes that are called in the morning if they are needed.
In addition, the district is eliminating some of its hourly positions. According to Brown, school monitors’ hours will be reduced by a combined 35 hours a day and, because kindergarten bus routes will be changed next year, requiring fewer buses, the number of hours the kindergarten bus aides work each day will be cut from 38 this year to 16 in 2009-10.
In total, the staff reductions will save the district about $800,000, enough to cover 35 percent of the total budget increase.
Given the economic circumstances, Brown said, the aid the district will receive from the state was the best that could be expected, and the budget the administration drafted and the board approved was the best they could put forward.
"I’m here 26 years, and we’ve never had a lower budget increase," he said. "... I think it’s a sound budget for the kids and for the taxpayers."
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liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 207.
