Herricks school district voters approved the district’s 2016-2017 budget and re-elected school board Trustee Juleigh Chin by wide margins Tuesday night.
The $110 million budget passed 1,370 votes to 469. Chin was re-elected to a second three-year term with 1,340 votes over challenger Andrew Apicos’ 368 votes.
“I think that my dedication to this community and our district is evident,” Chin said in a statement. “They see the hard work I put into all that I do, whether it is with the Scouts or this campaign, I work hard and I do my best.”
Apicos said he was glad voters had a choice in the school board election.
“The district and its leadership are likely to face many challenges in the future and I believe they will meet them, and will do the best they can for the students, staff and taxpayers,” he said in a statement.
The budget voters approved includes a 0.16-percent tax levy increase, less than half the 0.36-percent increase the district was allowed under state tax cap law.
It adds funds for new teachers and other staff, technology equipment, infrastructure fixes and new programs, including an elementary robotics team and additional social-emotional learning programs
It also includes an $820,000 package of capital improvements funded largely by more than $629,000 in additional state funds from the final gap elimination adjustment payment, money the state withheld from school districts to cover its own deficit in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
The board decided to use the aid boost and slightly enlarge the tax levy increase from 0.12 percent to fund the projects after discussing the possibility of flattening the tax levy.
Apicos and Chin had agreed the district’s finances are in a strong position now, but diverged somewhat on its budget outlook.
Apicos has said the budget put Herricks in a “state of equilibrium” after major cuts in the early years of the state’s tax levy cap.
The district could benefit from strong budget planning and involving teachers more in decision-making and program development, as they could generate ideas that would save money without sacrificing programs, he said. He also questioned the use of reserves in the budget.
“You’re doing the best you can with the situation and the cards that you’ve been dealt,” Apicos said at a May 2 candidates’ forum.
Chin, on the other hand, said this year’s budget indicates a brighter outlook as the district has learned to navigate the cap by restoring cuts she described as painful and adding new programs.
She said she was unsure what reserves Apicos was referring to.
“It’s not that it doesn’t hurt now, but we kind of learned how to live with it and we kind of learned to adjust and roll with those punches, but we don’t have these big reserves that some of our neighboring districts might have,” Chin said at the forum.
Chin would also like to see more team-building for students and staff, and programs addressing issues such as bullying and eating disorders, she has said.
