The Herricks Board of Education last week unanimously voted to adopt a $108.2 million budget proposal that would stay below the tax cap and puts an emphasis on adding teachers to reduce class sizes and reinstate class-size caps.
The district also approved a ballot measure to create a capital reserve.
The $108.2 million proposal marks a $646,081 or 0.6 percent increase from the $107.6 million budget in 2014-15.
Both the budget proposal and the capital reserve will go before voters on May 19.
Superintendent John Bierwirth said the 2015-16 budget proposal would to continue to restore programs and positions the district was forced to cut in the past several years. The district cut about 100 jobs between the 2011-12 and 2013-14 fiscal years.
“It was really nice to be able to restore at least some of the things we’ve had to cut over the last four years,” Bierwirth said. “First and foremost [we wanted to] get class sizes back down.”
The budget calls for adding 12 teaching positions spread between the schools and would reinstate the elementary school class size caps – 22 students for kindergarten, 25 students for grades one to three, and 27 students for grades four and five — that the district suspended four years ago.
“Suspending the class-size guidelines four years ago was deeply painful,” Bierwirth said in a memo of budget recommendations to the board. “Despite the best efforts of staff, this had a detrimental impact. Restoring the guidelines is at the top of the list.”
The budget proposal also adds two English-as-a-Second-Language staff members, one special education staff member, at least one facilities employee and one assistant principal, who will work at Denton Avenue School.
The proposal would also increase the technology budget and purchase three buses to replenish the district’s aging fleet, a prerequisite to changing the high school start time to 8 a.m., something the board said it would consider for 2016.
Though the budget proposal includes for only a modest 0.6 percent increase over the current fiscal year, the district is benefitting financially from a sharp drop in employer pension contribution rates, which had ballooned in recent years.
The economic downturn hit Herricks harder than many districts in the area, something that Bierwirth attributed to Herricks smaller budget per student compared to other schools in the area.
“The districts that we compete against academically spend anywhere from say a third to more than that above what we do for student. We have always had to be very close to the line. We try to offer academic programs and services that are fully competitive with all of the districts…and yet we’ve had to do it with a lot less money,” he said. “We don’t have big reserves we can tap into in times of difficulty, and we have to budget very tightly. So when we got squeezed, we had to cut. And we did. We did not mortgage the future.”
Herricks has a total enrollment of about 3,900 students, so per-student spending would be just under $28,000 if enrollment remains constant. The figure would be about $5,000 less than East Williston and is generally less than surrounding school districts, according to a report by East Williston School District’s Financial Advisory Committee.
But Bierwirth added that the district is now in sound financial shape to rebuild.
“The good news is that when things did turn around we were not, if you will, paying off old debts,” he said. “We were in a position to be able to restore things… We’ve certainly not restored all that we’ve cut by any means, but we did what we had to.”
Bierwirth’s budget recommendations for the next fiscal year included five-year economic projections, and Bierwirth said the district was careful to budget conservatively to ensure any program or staff additions can be maintained.
“I’m comfortable that our projections for the next four years are pretty solid,” he said. “What I’d hate to see is the district having to adjust things downward and have to cut back on programs or staffing or class sizes, and that’s what we’re going out of our way to avoid.”
The board also approved a ballot measure to create a capital reserve, which would allow the district to perform certain capital projects such as building repairs without borrowing or bonding. If approved by voters, the 10-year reserve could hold a maximum of $5 million.
Voters would also need to approve any future expenditure from the reserve.
“The establishment of a capital project reserve would give the district the ability to address at least some major capital projects in a more flexible and timely fashion,” Bierwirth said in his budget recommendations. “Instead of waiting for something to become irreparable and, thereby, become eligible to be replaced on an emergency basis or…put out a bond, the district would be able to tap the reserve.
Board members said they feel positive about the budget proposal and the capital reserve.
“I feel good about this,” Board of Education Trustee Nancy Feinstein said.
Bierwirth, who is retiring at the end of the school year, said it felt good to leave the district while finances were trending upward.
“It’s a whole lot better than it’s been for the last four years,” he said. “This was nice. Hiring new teachers, people going out on childcare leave, it seems like normal.”
