The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park school district will maintain its programs and enhance some of them despite the tight tax levy cap that has pressured Nassau County school districts, district officials said Monday.
A 7-percent increase in state aid and savings in personnel and some other costs helped the district as it formulated the $37.4 million draft budget for 2016-17 under a 0.38-percent cap on tax levy growth, Superintendent Robert Katulak said.
“We asked … everybody to really roll up their sleeves and come forward with a budget that makes sense for what they actually need — not just what they want, but more importantly, what they need,” Assistant Superintendent for Business Michael Frank told the school board and parents Monday night.
The $113,000 growth in the property tax levy to $29.9 million will result in an average school tax increase of $12.38 per homeowner, Frank said.
As in other districts, about $360,000 in extra state aid and reductions in district contributions to state pension funds help offset the miniscule tax revenue growth, Frank said, the result of a small 0.12-percent increase in the consumer price index, a cost-of-living indicator.
“As taxpayers we’re certainly going to be happy about this, but as a school district it concerns us greatly,” Frank said.
Retirements helped reduce some district personnel costs, Katulak said. The district has also found savings through service-sharing agreements with other districts, he said.
The district also plans to use $860,000 of savings from its fund balance to supplement revenue where it cannot increase the tax levy, Frank said.
“We keep it so that we can use it to fill the hole or the void in the revenue budget so that we can utilize those savings to help fund things that are on the expenditure budget,” he said.
Increases in salaries and benefits — about 80 percent of the district’s expenses — drive the 1.59-percent growth in the overall budget, Frank said. Costs for those two items are set to increase 1.63 percent, he said, while all other expenses together are decreasing 0.03 percent.
The budget will allow New Hyde Park-Garden City Park to purchase new equipment for its science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, or STEAM, initiatives, and to start implementing a one-to-one technology program, Katulak said.
The district will upgrade its computer carts for science classes and replace the iPads used in English-as-a-second-language classes, as well as several color printers and touch-screen white boards across its four schools, Katulak said.
The one-to-one device initiative will start “slowly” in sixth-grade classrooms, Katulak said, with each class getting five devices for use in class. Teachers will also work over the summer to create a framework for STEAM-based classroom activities, he said.
“We don’t settle for status quo,” Katulak said. “Once we get students at a certain level, our principals help and say, ‘Okay, what’s it now we can do to move them forward?’”
Administrators incorporated suggestions parents and students gave at budget input sessions as they worked to maintain its programs, Katulak said.
The district is also working on another three-year plan for district spending, he said.
Resident Kurt Langjahr proposed centralizing the district in two larger schools instead of four to reduce tax increases and handle enrollment growth.
In response, Katulak said the district has reduced tax increases from double digits to less than 2 percent over the years and is using every available space in its current buildings.
District residents will vote on the budget and candidates for three school board seats on May 17.
The seats Jennifer Kerrane, Joan Romagnoli and Ernest Gentile currently hold are up for election this year, District Clerk Patricia Olive said in an email.
Also at Monday’s meeting, Katulak said the district is continuing negotiations with its custodians, nurses and clerical workers, who have been working under expired contracts for three years or more.
Katulak said he is optimistic the parties will reach an agreement by June.
Parent Anthony Guerrero, a supporter of a parent movement to pull children out of controversial state tests based on Common Core standards, asked Katulak when he would send a letter reminding parents of their right to opt out of testing.
Katulak said he tells parents that’s an option if they ask him directly, but he will not do so on a districtwide scale.
