By: Andrew Coen
According to Robert Bartels, the district's assistant superintendent for business, who gave a budget presentation at the Feb. 8 school board meeting's work session, the initial budget increase from the current year is $4,257,000, or 5.93 percent, which does not take into account any new programs or staff the district may add. Bartels would not say what the tax rate would be, but said it would likely go up as a result of less money coming from assessments and insufficient state aid.
The drop in assessments collected in Rockville Centre and other districts in the state is due to a decrease in the rate at which homes are assessed from 1 percent to .5 percent, according to Bartels. "This will effectively double your tax rate for next year," he said.
Last year's tax rate in Rockville Centre was $153 per $100 of the accessed value of a home.
District officials say that the external factors that will lead to an increase in the budget include new teacher retirement system and employee retirement system requirements, higher utility costs and increased health insurance costs. State aid is expected to remain relatively flat, with an estimated $100,000 increase in local revenues from higher interest rates and non-resident tuition increases, according to district officials. Governor Pataki's initial state aid estimate for Rockville Centre calls for a slight increase of 2.82 percent, or $157,722 over the $5,589,161 the district received from the state Legislature last year.
At the meeting, Superintendent William Johnson complained that the district would not be getting much more help from Albany, and thus more of the financial burden would be placed on taxpayers. "There has been a total lack of concern for our students, and particularly here in Rockville Centre," said Johnson of the fact that many districts are not receiving much money from the state for their budgets. "There has been a continuing shift in the burden towards how we pay for our school. It is a shift that has put a tremendous amount of pressure on this Board of Education."
Johnson pointed out that state aid for the district has been cut in half since he took over 20 years ago, from 15 to 20 percent of the total budget in the mid-1980s to only 7 to 8.5 percent today.
Nearly half of the projected 2005-06 budget - 48.7 percent - would be earmarked for employee contracts, with 19 percent going to the teacher retirement system and 14 percent set aside for health insurance.
South Side High School is looking at a decrease of nine students from the current enrollment of 1,174. South Side Middle School expects to increase enrollment by 23 students from the current 843 in sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Enrollment at Rockville Centre's five elementary schools is expected to jump by 22 students, with one extra section to be added over the current 18.
"We will weigh all the options so that we can develop a budget that will get the approval of the taxpayers," said Marcia Hirsch, the school board president, in a phone interview.
The budgets for athletics and music and art programs are projected to go up 9.76 percent and 13.21 percent, respectively. The main reason for the increase in athletics is due to the district's need for a full-time trainer, according to Athletic Director Michael A. Heller. In the past the district has received the services of a trainer from the Long Island Sports & Rehabilitation Center on Sunrise Highway, but the facility is cutting back services.
Although the district recently passed a bond to address its buildings' capital needs, $137,000 of small maintenance projects were also outlined in the budget presentation. The most significant are at the middle school, with $20,000 earmarked for sanding and refurbishing the large gym and $20,000 to replace and add gym mats and panels in the building.
"It's going to be a tough year, but I am still confident we will come up with a working document at the end of [the budget process] that will hopefully garner the support of the community," said Bartels.
After the regular school board meeting Feb. 15, the district was scheduled to hold a public work session on Tuesday, March 1, at 8:30 p.m. in the administration building. An afternoon budget work session on March 18, at 2 p.m. in the administration building, will be open to the public, to be followed by a preliminary budget hearing on April 20 at 8:30 p.m., when the proposed budget will be officially adopted by the board. After a May 3 budget hearing at South Side High School, the public will vote on whether to approve the proposed budget on Tuesday, May 17, in the high school auditorium.
Comments about this story? acoen@liherald.com, or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210
