The Herricks Board of Education agreed last Thursday to restore two of the 16 teaching positions it had planned to eliminate under the 23013-14 school budget after learning that the district would receive $400,000 more in state education aid than had been anticipated.
“Much to our pleasant surprise, we wound up with more state aid than we expected,” Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth announced at the board’s regularly scheduled meeting.
“It’s close to a net of two teaching positions,” Bierwirth said. “This lessens the reduction.”
Board members agreed to reserve decision on whether the positions will be restored in the district’s secondary or elementary schools until the district administration can project needs based on fall class sizes.
The school district had anticipated a year-to-year increase of $250,000 in state aid, according to Herricks Assistant Superintendent of Business Helen Costigan. The overall $650,000 increase in state aid means Herricks will receive $8,636,411 in aid for its 2013-14 fiscal year and $50,000 in so-called “bullet aid” through state Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck), Costigan said.
After learning of the additional state aid, the board voted to restore $350,000 to a tax certiorari reserve fund it had voted to use toward restoring $478,968 in budget cuts at its last meeting.
The budget items restored by the board include approximately $170,000 for the mathematics coordinator, $132,000 for a Gemini teacher and program supplies, $125,000 for one elementary school teacher, $18,698 for the school clubs, approximately $10,000 for the high school fall drama and $10,000 for a Philadelphia day trip for seventh graders replacing an annual Boston trip.
In returning funding to the reserve fund, board members expressed concerns about possible revenue shortfalls the district faced if Nassau County was successful in overturning a recent decision requiring the county to continue to cover the cost of successful tax certiorari claims.
“The county is expediting their appeal process,” said board Vice President Jim Gounaris.
The board’s to restore the $350,000 for the tax certiorari reserve was unanimous.
“Now this gives us the opportunity to not sort of play Russian roulette,” said board President Christine Turner.
Total general fund appropriations for the 2013-14 budget are now projected to increase by 3.2 percent to $104.62 million, according to Costigan. Instructional services, including teachers wages and benefits, will be $60.52 million; general support services, $10.7 million; undistributed expenses, $29.48 million; pupil transportation services, $3.35 million and community services, $506,197, Costigan said.
Costigan said the district’s prior projection of a 3.16 percent increase in next year’s tax levy to $89.43 million over the current tax levy remained unchanged.
Gounaris successively spearheaded an effort to restore a Spanish immersion curriculum in the Denton Avenue School next fall which was to lapse after current classes in grades one through three completed their courses this year.
“If we don’t do it this year, it will probably die as these three [classes] go through,” he said. “It doesn’t cost the district money. The benefit these students are receiving is tremendous.”
Gounaris said his daughter is currently among the third graders benefitting from the Spanish immersion class.
A chorus of parents spoke in favor of maintaining the program, saying their own children were demonstrating increasing Spanish fluency in the program. One parent recounted his third grade daughter ordering a meal for him in Spanish when his family recently took a trip to Mexico.
“It sets ourselves apart from other school districts,” another parent said. “It’s fantastic.”
Bierwirth said he never “wavered” in his belief in the program. It was to lapse due to elimination of teaching positions over the past two years as the district struggled to remain within the parameters of the state-mandated tax cap, he said. Bierwirth said he would need to find a first grade teacher who was both fluent in Spanish and capable of teaching the language.
After the meeting, he said he was uncertain as to whether money for one of the two teaching positions would be applied to hiring a teacher for the first grade Spanish immersion instruction.
In other developments:
• The school board voted to retain Patchogue-based BBS Architects for a proposed capital bond project to be voted on in May 2014. Trustee Brian Hassan said $300,000 in annual payments for a bond that would expire in 2015 could be applied to repairs needed on the middle school roof and to replace the school’s boilers. He said the money from the expiring bond could be used for another bond at a lower interest rate to fund the projects.
• The board approved a fee of $150 per student for the summer Language Immersion Program, along with salaries of $1,900 for the program director and $900 for teachers. The program will run five days a week for three hours each day during the last two weeks in August.
• The board accepted a donation of two table tennis tables to the Herricks district from Tsang Li, president of the Port Washington Table Tennis Club.
• The board also accepted a $1,000 scholarship from Gershow Recycling to be awarded to a graduating high school senior who intends to major in environmental science or engineering.
• The board approved a resolution objecting to “high-stakes standardized testing,” which the resolution said has “negative effects for students from all backgrounds.” The resolution calls on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Education Commissioner John King, the state Legislature and the state Board of Regents to develop a system that doesn’t require extensive standardized testing and to re-examine the Annual Professional Performance Review implemented this year. Bierwirth said the same resolution is circulating among other school districts.
“We are not that happy with this testing,” Bierwirth said.
