It didn’t take long for teachers’ salaries and potentional program cuts to take center stage at the Herricks Board of Education’s annual public meeting with representatives of the the Herricks Teachers Association last Thursday night.
Herricks board President Christine Turner kicked the discussion off by asking Herricks Teachers Association President Jane Morales what she would suggest the school board do to balance next year’s school budget.
“I would probably want to sit down with the [teachers] union again, if I were you,” Morales said.
“But,” Morales said, “I would try to see if we could 60 percent [of voters] to go over the cap.”
Morale’s second suggestion was an idea the board members would be unlikely to entertain in the second year of the state cap on school district tax levies
Morales said the board should only consider a request to voters to exceed the tax cap after determining how much money was required to keep district programs intact. A school district can override the 2 percent cap on tax levies if 60 percent or more of the voters approve a proposed school budget.
Morales also acknowledged the potential need for cutting things out of the district curricula.
“Maybe some programs would need to be cut. We’ve never been here before,” she said.
Board Trustee Nancy Feinstein, a Herricks PTA activist before running for a school board seat last year, said a vote to override the tax cap was unlikely.
“When you mention over the tax cap, I don’t think that’s a viable option,” Feinstein said.
Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth noted that approximately 80 percent of district residents don’t have children in the school system.
The 2012-13 school district tax levy of $89,429,579 represents a 2.88 percent year-to-year increase. That’s within the complex parameters of the state tax cap. The $101.27 million budget for 2012-13 represents a 2.29 percent increase over the current $98.99 million budget.
Maria Bono, co-president of the Herricks Council of PTAs, said it would be “impossible” to pass a school budget in the Herricks district with a vote of 60 percent or more.
“People are mad,” she said, adding that it will be difficult for parents to accept more cuts or pay for larger tax increases.
Turner said the tax cap is a “saving grace” for many Long Island residents. To exceed the tax cap in a proposed budget would be a “slap in the face” to Herricks residents in dire financial straits, she said.
“For a school board to do that would be very insensitive,” she added.
Board Vice President Jim Gounaris said the district has “to deal with what we have,” in the current budget range of $100 million. He also said the situation in Herricks “isn’t about money anymore” and asked HTA representatives how teachers are coping with conditions that have included the absence of an English Department chair in the high school.
Daniel Lorge, HTA secondary school vice president who teaches social studies at the high school, said teachers are coping with conditions by consulting with each other.
Lorge said the short-term solution to the financial crunch is for parents to man phone banks to ensure the budget passes. But he said in the longer view, he isn’t sure the board can avoid “doing something destructive.”
“You’re going to compromise in sadder and sadder ways,” he said.
Over the past two years, financial compromising in Herricks has translated into the elimination of 47 full-time teaching positions.
“As we approach the budget, we would hope you guys would step up in a variety of ways,” Gounaris told the teachers.
“We’re always here, ready to talk,” Morales said.
The teachers are currently in the fourth year of a five-year contract that calls for a 3 percent increase in salaries this year, with a 3 percent increase guaranteed in the final year of the current contract.
Talks between the board and the teachers on contract modifications during last year’s budget deliberations broke down after the teachers offered to forego half of that salary increase in the current budget in exchange for a two-year contract extension.
At the time, Turner said the board thought the salary modification was not “sufficient” and the long-term cost was “too great.”
In other developments:
• Herricks Assistant Superintendent of Business Helen Costigan said she’s been receiving more phone calls than in recent years regarding residents’ tax assessments. A chart she used to illustrate the percentage of fluctuations on assessments of three houses in the district and the average assessment districtwide from 2006 through 2012 showed a wide divergence between the individual houses, and between those properties and the district average.
This year, assessments on two of the three houses fell by approximately 12 percent, while the assessment on the third house remained constant. The districtwide average for assessments dropped by 7.62 percent, she said.
In 2011, the districtwide average dropped by approximately one-third of the 7.62 percent, with the second house’s assessment falling at about the same rate and the third house’s assessment dropping by nearly 4 percent. The assessment on the first house simultaneously rose by approximately 15 percent.
“It’s a significant change and effect. These assessments are really all over the place,” Costigan said.
Bierwirth said he anticipated numerous property tax appeals to be filed in the district.
“I can’t imagine anyone in Nassau County not challenging their assessment next year,” he said.
The board committed $346,891 in its 2012-13 budget to make up the shortfall in anticipated caused by property tax appeals. The responsibility to cover such shortfalls shifted to school districts when Nassau County abandoned the county guarantee this year, a move that is currently being contested in court.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
