Great Neck Public Schools adopt $218M 2016-17 budget

Joe Nikic

The Great Neck Board of Education unanimously approved a $218,927,365 budget for the 2016-17 school year on Tuesday that calls for a $2,229,611 increase in spending over the current budget, but still requires a reduction of 14 teaching positions as well as 21 other employees.

Voters will now go to the polls on May 17 to approve the budget, as well as vote in the school board election, which sees incumbent Monique Bloom running unopposed for re-election.

“This was a very challenging budget cycle. Many districts have faced similar challenges, it just so happens to be on our doorstep this year,” Superintendent of Schools Teresa Prendergast said. “And one of the things that I have talked about from the very beginning is, wherever possible, we maintain our mission and our values with regards to what we expect of our students in Great Neck.”

Board Vice President Larry Gross said at last month’s board meeting that after hiring 24 new full-time positions last year the district would need to reduce the number of teachers by 14 in the 2016-17 school year.

District Assistant Superintendent for Business John Powell said 21 non-teaching positions would also need to be eliminated to keep the budget under the state-mandated .17 percent tax cap.

These employees include one full-time administrative staff member, nine paraprofessionals, three full-time and three part-time clerical staff members, one buildings and grounds department supervisor and four cleaning attendants.

“There’s nothing in the budget that didn’t have value,” Gross said. “The question is relative value, unfortunately.”

Prendergast said teacher cuts at the elementary level were due to a decline in enrollment.

“We are not jeopardizing class size, there have been no changes to the board guidelines,” she said. “It is primarily due to the reduction in enrollment.”

Prendergast also said the district found that the incoming Kindergarten class for the 2016-17 school year, was smaller than the outgoing class of 12th graders this year.

“Therefore we don’t need as many sections to educate all of our kindergarten students,” she said.

School officials said the district is proposing to use $591,000 in restored Gap Elimination Adjustment funds for the restoration of school programs rather than to retain laid off teachers and school staff.

State legislators eliminated the Gap Elimination Adjustment, an unpopular method the state introduced in 2010 to cover a budget deficit at the expense of public schools, in approving a $155 billion budget on Friday. The elimination of the Gap Elimination Adjustment provided Long Island schools with an $155 million in additional funding.

While Great Neck schools did receive almost $591,000 in restored GEA funds, Prendergast said, about $360,000 of it is a one-time payment.

She also said the board would use the funds to restore the early morning drop-off program for elementary school students, hours for elementary English Language Arts and Math support programs, a percentage of the Student Index Allocation, which allows school building principals to use supply, material and equipment money “in ways they see fit,” and to continue the district’s technology initiatives.

The budget calls for the district to collect $196,097,039 in property taxes to cover spending, a .17 percent increase from last year.

On March 19, the board presented how it intended to spend $19 million of a capital reserve fund established last year after residents voted to approve a 10-year capital plan for infrastructure improvements to the district’s school buildings.

The approved budget includes infrastructure projects covered by the reserve fund, including window repairs, fire alarm replacements and the repair of exterior masonry of some of the district’s schools.

Great Neck South High School student government president Tina Pavlovich and vice president Azim Keshwani, who have appeared at previous meetings asking the board to consider installing air conditioners in all of the district’s classrooms, attended Tuesday’s meeting to voice their displeasure that air conditioning was not considered in the infrastructure improvement plan for the 2016-17 school year.

Prendergast said the district had more immediate needs to address in its capital reserve plan.

“Remember there are 10 schools in this district, three additional buildings, plus all of the property we are responsible for,” she said. “We have to recognize that some of our buildings have aged and additional work needs to be done just to maintain the structures, we’re not even talking about enhancements.”

But Prendergast also said the board would consider allowing voters to decide in the fall if the district should take out a bond to address other infrastructure needs at the schools.

“We’ve heard you. We understand. And air conditioning will absolutely be part of the discussion,” she said.

In the upcoming school board election, Bloom’s seat on the board was the only one expiring this year.

She was the lone candidate to file a petition to run.

Bloom won her first full term in office in 2013, after being appointed in June 2012 after board Vice President Fran Langsner moved outside the school district, forcing her resignation.

Efforts to reach Bloom, who was not at Tuesday’s meeting, were unavailing.

For registered voters living north of the LIRR, the final budget vote is set for Tuesday, May 17, from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. at E.M Baker School, while registered voters living south of the LIRR are required to go to South High School’s west gym to vote.

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