The Sewanhaka Central High School District will present a $162.2 million 2011-12 budget to voters on May 17 at least in part as a result of district teachers accepting a wage freeze early last month.
Sewanhaka Superintendent of Schools Warren Meierdiercks said he was “very happy” with the 3.81 percent increase in spending the district will present to voters.
Meierdiercks had said he was to bring the tax levy in around 5 percent to make the budget palatable to district voters, and credited the union with coming through for the district. “This is a major concession by the teachers in the district,” Meierdiercks said at the time. “We save jobs, we save programs, we save athletics and extracurricular programs. Without these concessions, staff reductions would have been necessary.”
The Sewanhaka Federation of Teachers waived a 2.9 percent increase for 2011-12 in the final year of its three-year contract.
Meierdiercks said the wage freeze would save the district $2.1 million and allow the district to present a 5.18 percent increase in the tax levy.
Facing a second year of staff cutbacks, teachers union officials they took a cut for the sake of its membership and the district.
“We are committed to being part of a viable educational and economic solution that supports our students and our community,” said Roseanne Mamo, president of the teachers union.
Last year, the Sewanhaka district eliminated 15 full-time and part-time positions for a $1 million reduction in budget costs in the current school budget. That was part of a $2.73 million reduction in the 2010-11 budget, which included $338,303 to the athletics program, $320,000 in evening school programs, $311,000 in the summer school program and $236,000 in building budgets.
Like other districts, Sewanhaka saw a drop in state education aid from $27 million to $25.5 million in the 2011-12 school year.
The Sewanhaka School District is comprised of five high schools. Sewanhaka’s board is, in turn comprised of board members from four K through sixth grade elementary school districts including New Hyde Park-Garden City Park.
New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Superintendent of Schools Robert Katulak has touted school board’s proposed $33.5 million district budget, which represents a 2.97 percent increase over the current budget, as its lowest budget-to-budget increase in seven years. The tax levy would increase 5.89 percent.
“These are very difficult economic times. We worked diligently to arrive at this budget to keep almost all programs in place and to maintain employment of all staff members,” Katulak said.
Ultimately, Katulak said the district administration made $800,000 in cuts from its initial budget proposal, to make up for the rising cost of state-mandated pension and health care increases.
The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District received a $623,507 year-to-year reduction in state aid, from $4.4 million to $3.8 million.
To keep costs down the school board is also proposing to draw $584,690 from the district’s reserve fund.
If the proposed school budget passes, the average property tax bill in the district would be $2,849.18 compared to $2,808.76 under a contingency budget, which would go into effect if the budget was rejected by voters. That’s based on an assessed valuation of $465,000, according to Katulak.
Residents in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park district also pay approximately 25 percent of the Sewanhaka district budget.
Two incumbents, Patricia Rudd and Alan Cooper, are running unopposed to keep their board seats. Former board member Frank Miranda is running for a seat vacated by Annette Giarratani last year due to illness.
Rudd, a 12-year veteran of the board, said she decided to run again “because of the difficult times right now.”
Cooper, vice president for the Center of Learning and Innovation at the North Shore-LIJ Health System, is running for his second term on the board.
In Sewanhaka and New Hyde Park-Garden City Park, parents expressed satisfaction at meetings with the respective school boards’ ability to maintain programs and that figures to be a factor in the outcome of the election.
Both district budgets passed their first time around last year, as the budgets of several Nassau County school districts went down to defeat the first time around.
New Hyde Park and Garden City Park voters can cast their ballots for both the Sewanhaka and New Hyde Park- Garden City school district elections on May 17 at the Manor Oaks School on Hillside Avenue. Polls open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
