Tags Posts tagged with "Budgets"

Budgets

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Full-day kindergarten included in spending plan

Mount Sinai’s administration and board — including Superintendent Gordon Brosdal and BOE President Robert Sweeney — will ask taxpayers to weigh in on a capital bond proposal Dec. 11. File photo by Erika Karp

Over the last four years, only an average of 17 percent of registered voters in the Mount Sinai school district came out to the district’s annual May budget and school board election. This year, Superintendent Gordon Brosdal is urging residents to actually show up to the polls.

Prior to making his last presentation on the district’s proposed $56.7 million 2015-16 school year budget, which the school board unanimously adopted, Brosdal took a few minutes to remind the larger-than-usual crowd that every vote matters.

“If people vote yes or no, that’s their issue, but please come out and vote,” he said at the April 22 school board meeting. “All of you. Encourage your friends, neighbors.”

Elected officials, those who decide how much state aid the district gets, will take notice, according to Brosdal.

While the district budgeted for no increase in state aid over the current year, the district received $391,860 more than anticipated. Included in the total $16.4 million aid package, is more than $500,000 in kindergarten conversion aid, as the district plans to transition from a half-day to full-day kindergarten program.

The possible change has been a topic of discussion for a year, with many parents backing the move, as students require additional classroom time in order to keep up with the Common Core Learning Standards.

Last month, the district committed to making the jump and included the full-day program in its budget proposal.

At the April 22 meeting, Brosdal said that after he recently saw Miller Place’s newly implemented full-day kindergarten program he was “kind of elated” by what he witnessed at the school and how much the students were learning.

“We are leaving kids behind in our current program,” Brosdal said.

But school officials have repeatedly reminded residents that the budget just isn’t about kindergarten. There is still a whole K-12 program that the budget maintains and betters.

Under the spending plan, which increases nearly 3.3 percent from the current year, class sizes, class offerings and programs are maintained. In addition, the district will begin following Columbia University’s Teachers College Writing Project, which provides writing curriculum and professional development for teachers, in grades kindergarten through fifth.

A resident with an average assessed home value of $3,500 will see an annual tax increase of $156.

The slight increase in state aid also helps the district’s three-year outlook, as it won’t have to rely as much on appropriating fund balance year after year. In the past, board President Robert Sweeney pointed to the 2017-18 school year as to when the district’s surplus would be depleted. However, according to current district estimates, the fund balance would remain at nearly 2 percent of the operating budget that year.

“We’re now in a position that we can develop our program each year and develop our program positively,” he said.

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Lowered tax levy increase allows district to deliver classroom upgrades, restored programs, positions

Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich says next year’s budget will allow for more balanced and smaller classroom sizes in the Three Village School District. File photo

By Andrea Moore Paldy

It was welcomed news for Three Village residents when they learned the community’s school district lowered its projected tax levy increase for the upcoming school year. The good news continued with the balancing and lowering of class sizes and restoration of some programs that fell victim to previous budget cuts.

The announcement came at the district’s most recent board meeting, during which the Three Village school board adopted a $188 million budget for the 2015-16 school year. Three Village will be able to lower the tax levy increase because of a $1.65 million bump in aid — $830,000 more than previously budgeted — assistant superintendent for business services Jeff Carlson said. Originally set at 2.93 percent, the district’s new cap on the tax levy increase is 2.79 percent.

Aid from the state includes a $1.86 million restoration of the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA), a measure that deducts money from aid packages to fund the state’s budget. Three Village will still see a loss of $3.3 million to the state. Over the six years since the institution of the GEA, the district has lost $32,422,271 — the equivalent of $2,398 for the average taxpayer, Carlson said.

While the .81 percent budget-to-budget increase works out to about $1 million more in expenses, the tax levy will go up $3.89 million. This is because the district will be depending less on its applied fund balance, Carlson said. Instead of budgeting $6.5 million from the district’s reserves, Carlson said last month that he would budget only between $2 million and $2.5 million.

Decreases to major expenses like contributions to retirement systems and healthcare are also responsible for the district’s positive financial forecast. Next school year, Three Village will see a $3.6 million drop in its retirement contributions and a $1 million decrease — that’s 5 percent — in its health insurance costs.

Three Village also benefits from increased revenue from tuition for non-residents attending its special education programs and the Three Village Academy. This year’s tuition generated $1.2 million.

Though declining enrollment in the elementary schools would allow the district to shed seven to eight teaching positions, the administration is choosing to balance class sizes instead.

“We believe in the importance of balancing class size and lowering those class sizes that are in the 25, 26, 27 range,” Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich said. “It is not helpful in any way to our younger students.”

Three classroom positions, along with the two positions from the Pi enrichment program that ends this year, will be converted to STEM specialist positions.

“Enrichment should be for all children in grades K through 6,” Pedisich said.

The appointed science and math specialists will be in each school to work with classroom teachers and provide both enrichment and remediation for students who need it, she added.

The administration is adding another .9 full-time equivalent (FTE) position, so that health — currently only offered to sixth graders — can be taught to fourth through sixth graders.  And an additional .5 FTE social worker position is being added so that each elementary school can have a full-time social worker.

This move is “critical to issues such as bullying” and preventative work, Pedisich said.

There will be small staffing increases at the junior and senior highs to balance classes, decrease study halls and increase electives, she said. Carlson said the cost for these additions will be covered by retirements.

Departments that will benefit include technology, English, foreign language, guidance, health, math, science and social studies.

The American Sign Language class, which was popular before it was cut two years ago, will again be offered by the foreign language department, while a computer programming class will be added to the math department. The district will also add 1.2 FTEs for English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers — to comply with a new state mandate — and it will add another 1.3 FTE to guidance for counseling.

There will be additions to the clerical staff, as well as to maintenance and operations, in order to lower overtime costs and outside contractors, Carlson said. There will also be additional security during the day and for evening activities, he added.

The superintendent said that the district will restructure its current administration to create new roles without the need for additional staff. Some positions expected to be restored include the coordinating chair for music, an assistant director for health and physical education, an assistant director for pupil personnel services, coordinating chair for junior high foreign language and district-wide ESL and an assistant director for instructional technology.

The assistant director for instructional technology will help the district prepare for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, as well as help determine how to spend the money Three Village receives from the Smart Schools Bond that passed in November.  The $2 billion bond is earmarked for pre-K classrooms, wireless and broadband systems, safety and security technology and classroom technology across the state. Carlson said the district’s share will be close to $3.4 million.

An approved government efficiency plan that shows a 1 percent savings to the tax levy — while also staying within the tax cap — will make residents eligible for another tax rebate check, Carlson said.

The budget vote will take place from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., May 19 at the district’s elementary schools.

Superintendent
In other news, the board voted to reappoint the superintendent for another three years.

“I have to say, never in all my years have we had a superintendent of schools as respected and beloved by this community as Cheryl Pedisich,” said school board President Bill Connors, who has served on the board for 15 of the past 21 years.

Pedisich, who started in Three Village in 1984 as a guidance counselor at Ward Melville High School, was visibly moved by the standing ovation she received.

“I really am very overwhelmed,” she said. “I have spent my entire career here and I could not think of a place I would consider going…. My heart and my soul belong to this community, and you definitely have me 110 percent.”

The Huntington Public Library’s Huntington Station branch. File photo

On Tuesday, April 21, voters in the Huntington Public Library district will be asked to approve an $8.9 million budget to fund operations at the Huntington and Huntington Station branches.

The budget is an increase over this year’s spending plan of about $113,000 and will not exceed a state cap on property tax levy increases. The money will go toward library programs, services, materials and increasing Sunday and Friday evening hours to align closely with the school year, the library’s website said.

It will also go toward replacing the heating and cooling units at the Main Street branch in Huntington and installing LED lighting and interior space renovations there, library Director Joanne Adam said.

“I feel pretty good because I feel like we definitely were able to stay within the tax cap,” she said of her first budget with the branch. “I feel like we’re still offering a lot of good programs and services to our patrons while being able to do that.”

Residents will also be asked to vote for library board trustees next week. Three candidates are running for two seats on the board. Incumbent Harriet Spitzer is up for reelection and is running for another term, according to the library’s website. Candidates Yvette K. Stone and Pat McKenna-Bausch are also running for the seat.

The vote will take place on Tuesday, April 21, between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m., at the main building

Port Jefferson Treasurer Don Pearce explains the 2015-16 budget at a meeting in Village Hall on Wednesday night. Photo by Elana Glowatz

A week after some Port Jefferson residents called on village officials to keep any tax increases as low as possible in next year’s budget, the board of trustees did just that when they approved a $10.2 million spending plan Wednesday night that complies with the state-imposed cap on tax levy increases.

The budget will raise taxes by $0.46 for every $100 of assessed value on a property. That number comes in just below the village’s tax levy increase cap, at 1.68 percent.

At the time of a public hearing on April 6, the village had been working with a budget draft that would have carried a 4 percent tax increase, even after the board slashed more than $300,000 in expenses during budget workshops. The hearing was on a measure that the trustees ultimately passed that night to give themselves the authority to pierce the cap if necessary — something Port Jefferson has done each year since the state cap was enacted. But some residents implored the board to better control taxes and stay within the cap this time.

Treasurer Don Pearce said at the public hearing that in order to meet the cap, the village would have to cut out more than $140,000 in expenses or add revenues to the spending plan. On Wednesday night, Pearce said the village took residents’ comments and whittled down the budget further to close that gap.

Pearce reported that the 2015-16 budget will represent an increase of about $217,000 over the current year’s budget, which means that the village’s mandated expenses — like employee retirement contributions, health care costs and payments to the local ambulance company — are increasing more than the budget itself.

Spending plan includes funding for 25 positions

Jim Polansky file photo by Rohma Abbas

The Huntington school board voted to adopt a $120.3 million proposed 2015-16 budget that funds nearly 25 additional positions, including a new high school assistant principal, as well as two additional soccer teams at J. Taylor Finley Middle School.

Board members adopted the spending plan at a meeting on Monday night, but not without lengthy discussion on one last-minute budget amendment to add girls and boys soccer teams to Finley. A majority of board members were in favor of including about $38,000 in funding for the two teams, something for which some parents have been clamoring. However, board President Emily Rogan and Vice President Jennifer Hebert were against the move. The pair said they felt the money could better benefit students in other ways, like funding a full-time primary school librarian, an additional psychologist at the high school or putting the money toward robotics.

“While I am a big supporter of sports … I don’t necessarily think that adding another soccer team to the middle school is going to reach as many kids as some of the other things we’ve talked about,” Rogan said.

In the end, trustees Tom DiGiacomo, Bill Dwyer, Xavier Palacios and Bari Fehrs supported adding the teams. DiGiacomo said parents have long been requesting the teams.

“This is not an anomaly,” he said. “This is something that has been in the conversation for several years now.”
The 25 additional positions are a mix of instructional, noninstructional, administrative and contingency staff, Superintendent Jim Polansky said in an interview on Wednesday morning. The superintendent said 11.7 positions are instructional and six are noninstructional, the latter including some teachers’ aides. The number also includes the addition of a new high school assistant principal position, a district Science, Engineering, Technology and Math, also known as STEM, coach and five contingency positions. Contingency positions are included in the budget in case they’re needed based on enrollment or other factors.

In Monday night’s budget presentation, Polanksy unveiled the district’s state aid figures. The district will be getting an additional nearly $1.5 million in aid from the state next year, bringing the total to about $14.1 million.

The aid will allow the district to pay for five contingency positions, at a cost of $352,275, the high school assistant principal at $193,859 and the district STEM coach at $89,361. Those costs include salary and benefits, according to Polansky’s presentation.

An additional assistant principal is needed to assist with managing the 1,400-student high school and collecting data on teachers. Polansky said currently, two administrators oversee operations there, and if one student is having a bad day, an administrator could spend an entire day working on the issue, leaving the high school in the hands of one administrator.

If approved by voters on May 19, the budget would increase by 2.36 percent over this year’s spending plan, from $117.6 million to $120.3 million. The budget stays within a state-mandated cap on property tax levy increase. For the average resident with a home assessed at $3,622, taxes would increase next year by about $184.

The budget also includes a proposition asking voters to allow the district to spend just over $1 million in capital monies it already has in reserve to pay for state-approved projects.

The school board budget hearing is on May 11, and the budget vote and trustee election are on May 19.

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Port Jefferson Earl L. Vandermeulen High School. File photo by Elana Glowatz

Now it’s up to the voters.

Port Jefferson school board members adopted a 2015-16 budget on Tuesday night that would raise the tax rate 1.62 percent, matching the state-imposed cap on how much it can increase.

The $42.4 million budget proposal has not changed much since it was first presented to the community earlier this year. It would increase staffing levels — bringing in additional teachers for English as a second language, a groundskeeper and teaching assistants — and put $1.25 million toward constructing a new elevator at the district high school.

The elevator project is so costly because in order to build a lift that is up to code, the district will have to construct a wider elevator shaft as well as new lobbies on each floor.

Another driver of the budget increase is funding to have an ambulance present at Port Jefferson lacrosse and football games, a safety measure proposed in response to the death of a Shoreham-Wading River High School student-athlete following a football game against John Glenn High School in the fall.

But it won’t be all increases — the school district is expecting to see a 4 percent decrease in state teachers’ retirement system contributions next year.

Although the tax levy would only go up 1.62 percent, the budget-to-budget increase would top 5 percent, due to staffing and capital costs. However, Assistant Superintendent for Business Sean Leister explained during a budget presentation on Tuesday, the district would draw $1.3 million from its debt service fund to offset the increase. That fund contains leftover monies from completed bond projects.

If voters approve the budget in May, the tax rate would increase to $144.67 for every $100 of assessed value on a property.

Also on the ballot will be a proposition to create a new capital reserve fund aimed at replacing roofs at the three schools. Leister said the district would put surplus dollars leftover at the end of each school year into the new capital reserve fund to support roof replacements, which would be staggered so that those new roofs don’t eventually have to be replaced all at once.

According to Leister’s presentation, the district would need a community vote to use money from the fund, once it is established.

The district will hold a budget hearing on May 12 in the high school auditorium.

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Shannon Meehan outlines the different ways in which the Kings Park Central School District saved money while crafting its budget for the upcoming year. Photo by Barbara Donlon

Kings Park school district held its last budget meeting Tuesday and shared good news with the community as it added wish list items to the budget while still staying below the tax cap limit.

At the final open budget workshop, the district presented an $84.7 million budget that preserves the current curriculum and extra curricular activities while also adding new staff and programs for next year.

Shannon Meehan, the school business administrator, said savings through teacher retirements and extra revenue helped the district craft the 2015-2016 budget with a 2 percent tax levy increase.

“We’re able to maintain all of our curriculum and programs, we’re able to keep all of our extra curricular activities — music, art, sports — stabilize or in some cases reduce our class sizes and propose a [budget] that’s within our tax cap limitations,” Meehan said.

The district is also projecting approval in the next few weeks for an energy performance contract, which is also expected to save money, administrators said. The contract is a comprehensive set of energy efficiency measures, accompanied with guarantees that the savings produced by a project will be sufficient to finance the project, the district said.

The contract was submitted to the New York State Education Department in April 2012 and has been under review. The wait time was blamed on issues caused from Hurricane Sandy.

Under the contract, the district is expected to update its heating system, perform weatherization measures and replace lighting and retrofitting.

The district is projecting a principal and interest payment of $358,082 for the 2015-2016 school year. The cost raised the levy to the maximum allowable amount of 2.27 percent, but the district was able to offset the cost due to the gap elimination adjustment (GEA) restoration the district received.

“We didn’t want to go to our community for more money than we needed. So that is why we didn’t take it to the full 2.27,” Superintendent Timothy Eagen said.

Kings Park will be receiving roughly $750,000 in additional usable state aid as part of the 36 percent GEA restoration and foundation aid. The surplus of money has allowed the district to include its wish-listed items in the budget.

Costing just shy of $400,000 the district will now add a social worker to split time between the high school and R.J.O Intermediate School, purchase much needed musical instruments, add an elementary librarian to R.J.O., add a third grounds man, reduce class size and more.

After the budget presentation the board and audience applauded the new superintendent and thanked him for the budget he helped put together.

“I tip my hat to Dr. Eagen on your first budget here in Kings Park,” Board of Education President Tom LoCascio said. “This is a good budget. This is a fiscally responsible, academically educationally sound budget.”

Library members in Port Jefferson and Comsewogue approved the two districts’ proposed budgets on Tuesday. Stock photo

Comsewogue and Port Jefferson library district members approved both institutions’ 2015-16 budgets on Tuesday. The Port Jefferson Free Library budget passed with 106 votes in favor and nine against. Comsewogue Public Library’s budget passed with 104 votes in favor and 19 against.

The Port Jefferson budget, which totals $4.33 million, will increase annual taxes by about $10.80 for the average village resident. The budget includes a $107,000 transfer to the library’s capital fund for facility improvements, as the library nears the finish line on forming a strategic plan for how the institution will serve members in the future. That plan includes improving the facilities and considers possible uses for an adjacent residential property on Thompson Street that the library recently purchased.

In Comsewogue, annual taxes will increase by about $11 for the average resident under the approved $5.58 million budget.

The Comsewogue district residents also elected a new trustee, Corinne DeStefano, with 116 votes. The candidate, who ran unopposed for a five-year term, is the wife of Comsewogue school board Trustee Robert DeStefano. A lifelong resident of the district, she works in quality assurance for software corporation CA Technologies.

New programs and services included in $15.2 million plan

Library visitors do work at the Middle Country Public Library’s Centereach location. File photo by Barbara Donlon

An average Middle Country resident will see an increase of less than a dollar a month under the Middle Country Public Library’s proposed $15.2 million 2015-16 budget.

An average homeowner with an assessed value of $3,000 will pay $0.93 extra per month, according to the library’s spring newsletter. The budget increases by 1.4 percent over the current year and stays within the library’s tax levy increase cap.

Under the plan, the library will offer a 3D printing service. Adults can put in a request to use the printer, while children can utilize the device under the supervision of a staff member.

Outdoor games for adults are also available. Games such as Jenga and lawn bowling can be rented for seven days at a time.

“We thought this could be fun for adults,” library Director Sophia Serlis-McPhillips said. “They can now check it out instead of buying it.”

In addition, the library is working to get its Music and Memory program off the ground. The program is catered toward people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Program participants will listen to music via iPods to help jog memories and improve their quality of life.

Serlis-McPhillips also noted that the notary service offered at the library’s Centereach location would expand to the Selden location in May.

“We can now offer it to our patrons in that neck of the woods,” Serlis-McPhillips said.

The children’s department will also see new things. The museum pass program is set to expand, and starting next year, tickets to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan will be offered.

In addition, a new initiative called 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten will commence in September. With the goal of getting kids to read 1,000 books by the time they enter kindergarten, young kids will take home backpacks filled with 10 books at a time. Participants will receive an incentive for every 100 books they read. There will also be new resources for the adult and children sections. Two new child-friendly databases called ScienceFlix and FreedomFlix, which specialize in science and American history, respectively, will be available.

For adults, a new program called hoopla, which Serlis-McPhillips called “very popular,” will be available for adults to download movies and books.

The library will continue to expand access to downloadable e-books.

“There’s been an increase in circulation for downloadable [books] instead of print,” Serlis-McPhillips said.

Despite the change, the director said as long as people continue to read, that is all that matters.
Middle Country Public Library Board of Trustees President John Hoctor said he is pleased at the work the library does every year.

“Middle Country is always on the cusp,” Hoctor said. “They are the leader in the field.”

Hoctor’s deep love for libraries is why he sits on the board. He said every time he visits the library he get’s a sense of joy.

“One of the things I love about our library are the programs for children,” he said.

The library budget vote and trustee election will take place April 14 from 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Centereach building. Incumbent Trustee Jacqueline Schott is running for re-election unopposed. She was unavailable for comment Tuesday evening.

The North Shore Public Library. File photo by Elana Glowatz

Budget season is in full swing and the local libraries aren’t excluded. Voters will take to the polls on Tuesday, April 14, to weigh in on proposed spending plans and elections of library trustees.

North Shore Public Library Director Laura Hawrey said in a phone interview that the proposed small increase of 0.9 percent from the current year would allow for additional programs at the library. Language programs, including Spanish, Italian and English, will have additional offerings.

“All of the language programs are very popular,” she said.

In addition, the library will continue to build its multicultural program, which exposes people to music and arts from different cultures.

Following another trend many libraries are experiencing, North Shore will continue to supply readers’ demand for e-books.

“We are increasing the e-books and decreasing the amount of [printed] books,” she said.

But old-fashioned book lovers shouldn’t be worried. Hawrey said books could be easily accessed through interlibrary loan. The loan system has contributed to a decrease in a need to have as many books in-house.
Under the spending plan, an average resident in the Rocky Point and Shoreham-Wading River school districts will pay an additional $3 annually.

Incumbent library Board of Trustees President Bill Schiavo is running unopposed for his third five-year term. In a phone interview, the retired high school English teacher and Stony Brook University professor said he has always been a book and library lover.

Schiavo said he and his fellow board members have worked to make sure taxpayers are getting some bang for their buck.

“Any increase we have, however minimal, is designed to go [toward] new programs,” he said.

Schiavo said he first ran with the goal of creating an annex library in the Rocky Point area, as the community needs more meeting spaces for residents. While this hasn’t come to fruition just yet due to financial constraints, Schiavo said the whole board is well aware of the need and will continue to look for space.