A group of 40 current Munsey Park Elementary School students and recent graduates were recognized Thursday by the Manhasset Board of Education for their involvement in a number of student groups.
Students were honored for participating in groups including “Student Council Officers”, “Volunteers to Decorate the School,” “Speaker at the New Parent Meeting” and “Children at Play Plus Volunteer,” at a ceremony in the Munsey Park School auditorium prior to the board’s regular meeting.
“It has been a very uplifting night,” Superintendent Charles Cardillo said. “Each school establishes a second home for the [students] here. You see people who care about one another.”
The students honored were Kate Kirkwood, Megan Amato, Jack Voelker, Alyssa Kapouralos, Katharine Caputi, Sophia Kekllas, Danny Murray, Charlie Sacha, Theofani Batidy, Benjamin Bittner, Caitlin Bock, Esha Brar, Brendan Conniff, Isabella DiPreta, Tina Giallias, Morgan Grygiel, Mia Kim, Ryan Kolin, Gigi Madden, Grace Miller, Hunter Panzik, Brendan Sargent, Aidan Schmitt, Joseph Albanese, Will Beresheim, Cristina Caputi, Blaze Conlan, Charisma Chambers, Henry Griffith, Gia Gurino, John Hogan, Jack McCusker, Riley Miller, Jack Paganucci, Mia Pierini, Megan Reilly, Katie Sweeney, Isabella Sforza, Gianna Sforza and Sophia Vlahakis.
Each student was presented with a certificate and was thanked individually by each member of the board.
In other business, the board accepted the Review of Audited Financial Statements for the year ended June 30 2015 after a presentation made by Deputy Superintendent-Business and Finance Rosemary Johnson.
Johnson’s one-hour long presentation highlighted how the district receives and spends money, she said.
New to Johnson’s presentation this year with the inclusion of Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 68, which is an amendment to Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 27.
Implemented on June 30, 2015, GASB No. 68, Johnson said, is a “statement [that] require[s] all governmental entities to record their participation in pension plans on their balance sheet.”
“Under new GASB Statement No. 68 which the District is required to implement, the district must record its proportionate share of pension assets, net of pension liabilities for the New York State Teachers’ Retirement and the New York State Employees’ Retirement System, even though the district has no access to the assets nor does the district manage, invest or control them in any way,” Johnson said. “The value of the assets, net of liabilities, depends upon changing market fluctuations over which the district also has no control.”
Johnson said that as a result of GASB No. 68, “the district’s net position increased by $16.254 million for the year ended June 30, 2015.”
This $16.254 million “represent[s] the market’s cumulative upward turn and the current overfunded status of the Teachers’ Retirement System,” Johnson said.
The Teachers’ Retirement System in New York State is funded at 112 percent, she said.
Johnson said that due to the implementation of GASB No. 68, the district’s net position increased from $1,360,238 to $8,744,443.
The total revenues for the district were $91,780,044 and the total expenditures were $ 89,938,745, Johnson said.
She said that the resulting $1,841,299 difference is not a surplus, but rather a net change in fund balance.
Some $1.5 million of the $1,841,299 difference Johnson said, is dedicated to the 2014 capital projects bond vote.
In December 2104, voters approved the district’s $22.9 million capital plan and corresponding $19.96 million bond proposal for renovations to classrooms, cafeterias and athletic fields.
The plan received 61.5 percent of the vote, district officials said. It needed a 50 percent simple majority to pass.
Johnson also said the district was under budget by $1,131,628 this year due to $292,939 in underexpended salaries, $446, 992 in underexpended provision for tuition and contract therapist costs for special education, $103,413 in underexpended legal fees and $119,876 in underexpended utilities.
“We are well positioned for [2016-2017] and beyond,” Johnson said.
Marianne Van Duyne, a partner at R.S. Abrams & Co., LLP, the external auditors for the district, said Johnson’s presentation was “very comprehensive,” and unlike any other presentation she has seen.
Trustee Pat Aiken echoed Van Duyne’s sentiments about the presentation.
“[Johnson] and her staff are very vigilant,” Aiken said.
Student delegate Lauren Merola said the student government has booked this year’s senior prom at Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.
The prom is scheduled for April 16, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.
The next board meeting will be on Thursday Nov. 19 at 8 p.m. at Manhasset Secondary School.
