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Northport-East Northport Union Free School District Board of Education

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Board of Education meetings are typically held at William J. Brosnan School. Photo credit GoogleMaps

By Dylan Friedman

The Northport-East Northport Union Free School District Board of Education met Feb. 13 to discuss the district’s proposed budget for the upcoming school year. The meeting covered various topics, including the district’s five-year technology plan, facilities upgrades and security initiatives.

Technology investments

A significant focus of the meeting was the district’s five-year technology plan, presented by Director of Technology David Leis. 

“Every technology investment we make is aligned with instructional purpose and keeping student-centric decision-making in mind,” Leis explained. 

The plan outlines a strategic approach to upgrading the district’s technology infrastructure, including modernizing the fiber backbone, enhancing cybersecurity measures and expanding wireless capabilities to support digital learning and assessments. 

“As we move more into a digital world, making sure our wireless network is robust and can keep up with the demands of all the mobile devices and online experiences is necessary to support our students,” Leis said.

The technology budget also includes funding for the district’s one-to-one device program, which provides students with laptops or tablets.

 “We’ve developed a strategic plan to cycle in new devices for grades one, five and nine each year, aligning with key transition points in a student’s educational journey,” Leis noted.

Facilities upgrades

The district’s facilities and operations team outlined several capital projects and upgrades planned for the upcoming year. These include installing split-unit air-conditioning systems and heat pumps in large shared spaces such as cafeterias and auditoriums. 

“We’re focused on creating equitable access to air-conditioned spaces across the district, so students have a comfortable environment for learning, especially during high-stakes testing,” John Lackner, buildings and grounds director, said.

Other facility improvements include restroom renovations, swipe card access for classrooms and upgrades to the district’s intercom and fire alarm systems. 

Superintendent David Moyer explained, “We’re really trying to create learning environments that are conducive to our instructional priorities. “

Security initiatives

The district’s security team, led by John McEnroe, presented several security-focused initiatives in the proposed budget. This includes extending the district’s blue strobe lockdown system to interior spaces such as gymnasiums and auditoriums and adding a new server to expand video storage capacity for the security camera network.

“The most important layer of security is training and developing our staff,” McEnroe stated. “We provide ongoing training in areas like de-escalation, threat assessment and emergency response planning.”

Transportation enhancements

The transportation department, supervised by Patricia McGrane, is also slated for improvements. The budget includes funding for two additional full-time bus drivers, allowing the district to use more of its own fleet of buses rather than relying on contracted services.

“When we can use our own large buses, we save tens of thousands of dollars compared to contracting out,” McGrane explained. 

The department is also implementing a new “way-finder” system to provide bus drivers with voice-activated turn-by-turn directions.

Recap

The proposed budget reflects the district’s commitment to investing in technology, facilities, security and transportation to support student learning and well-being. 

As Moyer emphasized, “These investments are not just about numbers, but about how we can best support the educational experience for our students.”

The board will continue to review and refine the budget proposal in the coming months before presenting it to the community for a vote.

For more information visit www.northport.k12.ny.us.

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File photo

By Dylan Friedman

Northport-East Northport Union Free School District Board of Education held a meeting Jan. 23 to provide an initial overview of the district’s budget planning for the 2025-2026 school year. Superintendent David Moyer and Assistant Superintendent for Business Bob Howard presented details on the budget development process, expenditure projections, revenue sources and long-term financial planning.

“The objectives for the presentation are to provide an overview of timelines and the budget development process, review expenditures and five-year budget and facilities projections, and review anticipated revenue and levy history,” Moyer explained.

One key challenge the district faces is the shifting tax burden due to the LIPA settlement. As Moyer stated, “We recognize the challenges of the shifting tax burden to our community due to the LIPA settlement, and are sensitive to being as fiscally responsible as possible while maintaining the quality of programming that the community expects.”

The administration is also closely monitoring staffing levels amid declining enrollment. “This year, it is possible that the district may need to assess some staff to meet its programming needs and levy a budget target,” said  Moyer.

Providing an overview of the district’s five-year budget history, Howard noted that while personnel services costs have seen modest increases, the district has made continual reductions in staffing. “The fact that the total cost, despite those contractual increases, is only increasing by an average of 0.2% is illustrative of and showing the facts that there have been staffing and salary reductions,” he explained.

However, contractual expenses and employee benefits have faced higher inflationary pressures. As Howard stated, “These are the costs that are driving a lot of our budget increases so salaries are flat or relatively low. Contractual costs are inflationary sensitive areas [and] are higher than average.”

Looking ahead, the administration is anticipating modest increases in health insurance, salaries and BOCES tuition as well as a slight decrease in the teachers’ retirement system rate. “We’re expecting about a 3.5% increase in our BOCES tuition costs. They’re giving us an indication that, you know, maybe they’re trying to keep it under 4%,” Howard said.

The district also shared its five-year master facilities plan, which outlines a combination of “pay-as-you-go” capital projects funded through the annual budget and more significant bond-funded initiatives. As Howard explained, “The district has recently invested more in its facilities, budgeted more, and transferred more into capital to maintain its buildings than it has in the past.”

On the revenue side, the presentation reviewed the district’s tax levy history, which has been below the tax cap limit each year. The administration is projecting a tax levy increase between 2.1% and 2.3% for 2025-2026, which is lower than the current year’s 2.33% increase.

“We are committed to doing everything possible to minimize this year’s levy recommendation to the board,” Moyer said.

Despite the challenges ahead, the administration reaffirmed its dedication to fiscal prudence while prioritizing the continued excellence of educational programs for students. Their proactive approach aims to balance budgetary constraints with the community’s expectations for quality education, ensuring that every financial decision supports the district’s long-term goals and the success of its students.

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Board of Education meetings are typically held at William J. Brosnan School. Photo credit GoogleMaps

By Peter Sloniewsky

The Northport-East Northport Union Free School District Board of Education met Nov. 7 at the William J. Brosnan Building to outline goals and review new proposals aimed at enriching student life and academic pathways.

Opening the public session, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Dana Boshnack introduced a series of new course proposals designed to expand student opportunities. Among these were four career/technical education pathways: animation, photography, video/digital film and digital art. She also proposed an advanced engineering “capstone” course for seniors developed in partnership with Project Lead the Way and Rochester Institute of Technology. New social studies options including Humanity in Crisis and Modern Media Savvy aim to address global issues and media literacy skills essential in today’s world.

Following the course proposals, Boshnack and Assistant Superintendent for Special Education and Student Support Services Louis Bonadonna provided a “comprehensive review” of student performance and improvement strategies. They outlined a framework for setting board priorities based on student success indicators and announced teams dedicated to supporting school improvement efforts. Their analysis included math and reading benchmarks tracked by the iReady program, state-standardized testing data for grades 3-8 and New York State Regents Exams. Collectively, the data confirmed that the district is effectively meeting state performance standards.

To conclude the meeting, the board addressed a state regionalization proposal. In New York, regionalization promotes collaboration among local superintendents to identify district strengths and needs with the goal of establishing advocacy priorities for state aid. This approach encourages resource sharing among districts, especially in areas with limited access to educational funding.

The Northport-East Northport BOE will meet again Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. with a public comment period at 7 p.m. at the William J. Brosnan Building.

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Northport High School. File photo

By Rokah Sejour

Northport-East Northport Union Free School District Board of Education held a meeting Thursday, Feb. 15, focusing on the non-instructional budget for the 2024-25 school year as well as possible changes in policy for attendant zones within the district. 

The proposed budget totals $189,934,741, an increase of $6,896,313 (3.77%).

The buildings and grounds, security and transportation departments of the district presented proposals based on their developmental priorities. 

Builidings and grounds

The buildings and grounds department proposed the purchase of a backhoe that would aid in the work being done in-house by the buildings and grounds staff within the school district.

“You’re really saving money in the long run,” said John Lackner, director of facilities. The backhoe would allow the department to save rental fees that have in the past amounted to approximately $15,000 for building four playgrounds. It would also be beneficial during circumstances like weather emergencies where one may not be readily available. 

The department does have a smaller backhoe available, but Lackner said that it is smaller and is not always optimal for some of the work that is being done, not to mention it is at 75 percent functioning capacity resulting from damages and has therefore questioned its “life expectancy.” 

Renovations for multiple restrooms, maintenance of parking lot, filter replacements and fire alarm upgrades, among other requests, were also part of the proposal.

Security

Supervisor of security, John McEnroe, proposed a glass mitigation pilot project at the high school reception and common areas. The technology would use a product called Smart Tint that would reduce the visibility in these spaces in case of a lockdown but otherwise would remain transparent. 

McEnroe requested that additional cameras to cover blind spots and new playground equipment be added, as well as computer hardware for camera system monitoring. He also advocated for ongoing staff training and development in order to build readiness for emergency responses.

Transportation

In an effort to combat increases in maintenance costs and issues, the transportation department is requesting two big buses. Trish McGrane, the transportation supervisor said, buses had to be “leased a number of times,” already during the 2022-23 and the 2023-24 school years due to “a number of buses” in their fleet being over 20 years old. 

McGrane further proposed an implementation of the Wayfinder program, through the company Transfinder. The program would use voice-activated turn-for-turn directions through a tablet in order to assist drivers in situations where they have to follow another route in an emergency or a bus breakdown.

McGrane anticipates that this will reduce any foreseeable rerouting issues and prioritize safety in emergencies.

Changes in attendance zones

During the second half of the meeting, the board reviewed several policies, one of which was attendance zones. 

As it stands, students’ transportation is normally zoned for a particular elementary or middle school. However, there are times when students are placed by the school district in different schools as when they have an individualized education program, other reasons determined by the district or if the request is parent led. 

The requests did not initially have a deadline for submission, which in turn has caused difficulties for the district in knowing what school students would be attending and to plan accordingly.

With this policy, the request would adopt a submission deadline of April 1 and coincides with the deadline for private schools requests for transportation.

This change is due to New York State Education Law Section 3635 requiring that schools must provide students transportation from the school of attendance. 

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