Schools

Superintendent Recommends $76.7 Million School Budget

Increase of $2.5 million over current budget; tax levy increase would be 2.42 percent.

Glen Cove Schools Superintendent Joseph Laria recommended a 2013-2014 budget increase of $2.5 million Monday, a proposal he said would include $2.4 million in cuts.

Laria proposed a $76,670,672 budget to the Board of Education, representing an appropriations increase of $2.5 million over the 2012-2013 $74.1 million budget, or a percentage increase of 3.4 percent.

The increase would mean a 2.42 percent tax levy increase, which Laria said is "significantly under the statutory limit that the state provides once we factor in exclusions."

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The budget would incorporate "unaudited" projected state aid in the amount of $7,819,301, according to Newsday, and an increase in anticipated Medicaid revenues of $100,000. 

The proposed budget would provide for:

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  • An assistant principal at the middle school
  • Two full-time ESL teachers
  • One full-time electives teacher at the high school
  • One full-time elementary school teacher "to maintain small class sizes"
  • Implementation of the "wheel" system of class scheduling
  • Addition of a part-time sign language interpreter hired directly rather than through a third party
  • School security upgrades, projected to cost "a reasonable amount of money" as a one-time expenditure. The district has undergone a comprehensive security study it will use to decide upgrades.
  • A new boiler at Landing Elementary School, an "accident waiting to happen"

The recommended budget includes $2,371,325 in cuts, Laria said.

"We have made every reasonable effort not to eliminate one program of any kind. We have made a reasonable effort not to reduce any teaching staff whatsoever, except the flip of a guidance counselor for a social worker," Laria said.

Reductions would include:

  • $650,000 in savings due to proposed bus transportation restructuring
  • Replacement of one social worker with a guidance counselor
  • $450,000 from tax certiary and workers' compensation reserve appropriations, which Laria said are healthy accounts, but added that this should not be repeated in subsequent budgets
  • $135,000 from the health insurance reserve appropriation
  • $460,000 reduction in special education tuition from the revised rollover budget, which Laria said had been over-budgeted. He said the program would be left with an adequate amount of funding.
  • Supplies appropriation reductions amounting to $44,350 from the middle school, $10,165 from other schools and $2,100 from special education
  • $15,000 in savings by hiring the part-time sign language interpreter directly

"The recommended budget scenario is by no means perfect," Laria said. "This is a tough go with a 2 percent cap. However, the recommended budget that I am proposing provides an acceptable balance - this is important - an acceptable balance, since no programs and no teachers are being excessed, except for the social worker. This represents a win-win for the taxpayers, the district and the children. It is strongly recommended that the Board seriously consider the proposed budget that I suggested."

Board president Joel Sunshine said that pension contributions to the state, which increased 4,800 percent in the last 12 years and went up in Glen Cove $1.6 million from last year to this year alone, are a serious drain on the district but can not be mitigated as contracts are required to be honored.

"When people in the community ask us, 'Why do the costs have to go up so much? Can't you guys cut some fat and some waste?'" said Sunshine. "We looked for that every year. There's no fat left."

Trustee David Higgins stressed the need for a new boiler at Landing School so it can be ready in time for next winter, when a failure would force classes out of the school. Also needed in the budget are generators for some buildings, he said, at least at Thayer House, where power outages knock out the administration's computer systems and shut down operations.

The budget would include an unassigned fund balance of $2,963,672 for emergency conditions, which Laria said is well under the legal limit of 4 percent of the budget.

 Laria said the district trusts the state aid projection but still needs to verify the figure.

The Board will vote on the proposed budget April 22.

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