Schools

District Budget Draft Calls for $2.2 Million Spending Hike

Glen Cove Board of Education to review and revise proposed plan

The Glen Cove School District's preliminary 2010-11 budget calls for $71.5 million in expenditures, an estimated $2.2 million — or 3.28 percent — increase in spending over the current year. 

Dr. Laurence Aronstein, the district's superintendent, presented the first draft of the budget at a school board meeting on Monday, and noted that he expects it to be revised three times before it is adopted. The public vote on the budget, which is the district's annual spending plan, will be held on May 18. 

"There will be a lot of changes made to this budget within the next six weeks or so," Aronstein explained. "There will be three more drafts of the budget and all of those will be heavily impacted by what's in this draft."

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Aronstein contended that administrators are doing their best to keep expenses down while continuing education and services. School officials said the budget aims to, among other things, "improve student performance districtwide, provide a range of extracurricular activities and maintain long term financial stability." 

Salaries comprise the biggest expense in the budget at $37.9 million or 53 percent. "We are the largest employer in Glen Cove," Aronstein said. "We have more than 600 people on our payroll." Employee benefits and contracts round out the top-three highest expenses in the budget, at $14.6 million and $8.2 million, respectively. 

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Health insurance costs for employees and other state mandates account for a part of the $2.2 million budget increase, both of which, are beyond the district's control. The budget also allots $890,000 for capital projects such as brick re-pointing at the Deasy and Landing elementary schools and carpeting and floor replacement in the sixth grade wing of the Middle School, among other refurbishments.

The recent loss of state aid and other projected revenues, school officials said, were also considered in the preliminary budget. Under Gov. David Paterson's proposed executive budget, the district will lose a little more than $880,000 in state aid next year, bringing the district's total anticipated assistance from the state to roughly $6.9 million.

"Our current state aid is the governor's proposal for the district, but the state Legislature has not yet taken action on this," Aronstein said. "We're expecting to hear a decision by April 1, but I suspect that with the kind of revenue problems that they are having in Albany, we may not see a resolution of this until July or August."

Aronstein said, however, that he took a different approach to preparing the budget this year because he made an initial recommendation of cuts in expenditures instead of waiting for the board to ask him to revise the budget with additional spending decreases. 

The budget currently calls for $1.85 million in cuts, which includes, among other things, the elimination of 13.5 teaching positions and one teaching assistant as well as ending athletic programs in the seventh grade. Aronstein said he was not ready to specify what teaching positions would be eliminated because the budget process is in the beginning stage and changes will be made. School officials also noted that the tax levy and austerity budget have not yet been determined. 

"Residents should remember that this budget is a first draft only. This is a starting point," Aronstein said. "The board will probably ask that some of these cuts be put back into the budget or the board may substitute other expenses as we continue to go through this process." 

The board's next budget discussion will be held at its meeting on March 8 at the Robert M. Finely Middle School. 


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