Budget OK’d, Gounaris wins in Herricks

Richard Tedesco

Voters in the Herricks School District approved the school board’s proposed $98.9 million budget by a very comfortable margin, with nearly 59 percent of the vote – 2,387 in favor and 1,678 against it – and community activist Jim Gounaris defeated Herricks PTA co-president Jonai Singh in a hotly contested race for a school board seat.

Gounaris won the race with Singh handily, with 60 percent of the vote – 2,422 votes to 1,607 votes. School board president Christine Turner drew 2,362 votes running unopposed for her position.

The $98.9 million budget represents a 2.55 percent increase over the current $96.5 million budget. The tax levy will increase by 3.78 percent.

“I’m very happy that the budget passed by as much as it did,” Turner said. “We tried to come in at a certain level so the people would pass it. This year we went to 2.55 [percent] and look at the cuts. And next year, it’s going to be worse.”

The budget calls for the elimination of 62 positions district-wide among all the employee groups with teachers making up 35 of the positions.

Herricks will lose $1.1 million in state education aid year-to-year, a reduction from $8.9 million this year to $7.8 million next year.

The school board based its budget on a 2 percent base increase it had instructed Bierwirth to draft. It restored approximately $1 million in cuts to that 2 percent formula, including a music teaching position and a Gemini teaching position among 5.4 teaching positions, four computer tech positions, $175,000 for athletics (originally reduced by $250,000) and $90,000 for clubs.

The margin of victory for the budget was in sharp contrast to last year, when district voters rejected the budget on the first ballot by a single vote before submitting a revised budget that was approved.

“I’m very happy,” Bierwirth said. ‘I thought the margin was clear cut. Herricks historically has passed budgets by slim margins and this is a bit stronger than usual. A lot of people thought the board took some very serious steps cutting as many positions as we did.”

Gounaris’s victory over Singh was seen as a slight upset.

Singh ran with Turner in the race for the seat held by Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar, who chose to not run for re-election. Ehrbar had encouraged Singh and endorsed her for election to the seat. He and other Herricks board members endorsed Singh in the race.

“I feel great. It’s a great day for everybody in the community, especially for our kids,” said Gounaris, who positioned himself as an independent voice in the race.

Last month the school board extended the contracts of teachers aides and school monitors; secretaries, nurses and clerical staff, and custodians for three years at 2.06 percent per year through 2015.

Helen Costigan, the district’s assistant superintendent of business, said concessions from the groups, including a six-month delay of a 1.6 percent salary increase in each of the three years, would enable the district to realize $234,000 in savings.

Retirement incentives adding $500 for each year of service for members of the employee units are also part of the revised package negotiated with the Herricks Teachers Association.

School officials had estimated that the tax levy would be 3.95 percent. Bierwirth said the district lowered its estimate to 3.78 percent following the restoration of $141,000 in state aid to the district following the approval of the state budget earlier this week. The new state budget will see a reduction of $1.2 million in state aid to the district.

The school board previously rejected a proposal from the Herricks Teachers Association at its March 10 meeting that would have saved the school district approximately $1 million by both sides’ calculations.

The proposed deal included $750,000 in HTA givebacks and an estimated $350,000 in savings from retirement incentives. The primary source of savings the HTA proposed was a reduction in the 2.75 percent salary increase during then 2011-12 school year to 1.5 percent.

Turner said the proposal was contingent on the board guaranteeing all HTA jobs and extending the existing teachers’ contract by one year beyond 2013-14 with a 2.25 percent increase in addition to “step” increases mandated by state law.

She said the $1 million in savings would be offset by $4 million in additional contract costs. The board unanimously rejected the offer.

“The proposal we received this week is not just a case of ‘too little, too late’. It is late – far too late,” Turner said at the time.

The school district is projected to save $53,000 next year from a voluntary modification of the Herricks Association of Administrative Supervisors contract, with that figure to be slightly higher in the succeeding two years, according to Bierwirth.

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