Residents of the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District will head to the polls to cast ballots on Tuesday, May 21, voting on both the elementary school and Sewanhaka Central High School budget, three uncontested trustee races and a fourth school board race pitting educator Jennifer Kerrane and Town of North Hempstead engineer James Reddan.
The voters will consider a proposed $35.52 million 2013-14 budget for the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District, a 2.99 percent increase over the current $34.39 million budget. The tax levy would be $29 million, a 3.22 percent increase over the current district levy of $28.15 million. That allows the district to stay below the state-mandated tax cap.
Robert Katulak, New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District superintendent of schools, has said the board struggled to maintain academic programs and support services, and keep class sizes within district guidelines in the face of costs mostly outside the district’s control. These included , he said, “skyrocketing” pension and health care costs, contracts that are required to be paid “despite a lack of settlement,” and continued unfunded mandates from the state and federal government.
Katulak said the school district has maintained academic programs in the face of the financial pressure from mandates.
“We have trained to maintain the concept of ‘highly qualified professionals’ with a laser-like focus on staff development tied to district goals and program implementation, and to maintain current teaching staff to help foster our local economy,” Katulak said.
Voters in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park district will also be voting on the Sewanhaka Central High School District budget, which covers five high schools including New Hyde Park Memorial High School. In addition to paying for the tax levy in the elementary school district, New Hyde Park and Garden City Park district residents pay approximately 20 per cent of the tax levy in the Sewanhaka district.
The Sewanhaka Board of Education approved a $171.78 million budget for 2013-14 at last Thursday nights’ meeting that calls for the elimination of 33.6 positions districtwide, including 15.6 teaching positions.
The budget represents a 2.84 percent year-to-year increase of $4.75 million over the current budget of $167 million. The projected 2013-14 tax levy under the budget would increase 3.23 percent year-to-year to $133.82 million from the current $129.63 million.
School officials said the tax levy falls below the state-mandated tax cap.
“Most importantly, we are going to enter another year where we have preserved the most important thing, which are the programs for the students,” Sewanhaka Superintendent of Schools Ralph Ferrie said when the board approved the budget in early April.
The elimination of 15.6 teaching positions represents a projected saving of $1.38 million in salaries and benefits. A projected saving of $160,439 will be realized from eliminating three teaching assistant positions. Ten administration positions are to be eliminated for a saving of $209,861 and five clerical positions are to be cut for a saving of $250,000. The 10 administrative positions being eliminated won’t translate to faculty personnel losing jobs. The positions are either department chairpersons who will double up on chair positions; other administrators will take on teaching roles.
Those cuts represent the bulk of $2.58 million in cost reductions the district will make next year to remain under the tax cap.
Maureen Kenney, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, has said the teachers retirement system rate would be 16.25 percent in 2013-14, a 37 percent increase over the 11.84 rate in the current school year.
The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District’s contested board race pits Kerrane against Reddan running for a seat vacated by board Vice President Joseph Bongiorno who opted to not seek re-election .
In uncontested races, Tara Notine is running for the seat Alan Cooper recently vacated and board President Ernest Gentile and Trustee Joan Romagnoli are also running for re-election for their seats on the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park board.
Kerrane is a career educator who was an elementary school teacher in the New York City system from 1997 to 2003. For the past several years, she has been a part-time teacher in a Manhasset nursery school where she is co-owner.
She said she is running because she thinks more parents should be school board trustees.
“Since there were some openings, I thought it was time we had some parents on the board,” Kerrane said.
She and her husband, Brian, have two children attending schools in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park district. She has been active with the school’s PTA for the past eight years.
Reddan has been a civil engineer for the Town of Hempstead since 2005. He is also a lawyer who represents the Woodmere Fire District and maintains a private practice in contract law. He has also been treasurer of the Woodmere Fire District from 2003 to 2006, which he said would help him in dealing with school board budgets.
“I believe that being treasurer of the district has prepared me for being on the school board. I have gotten used to how state budgets and codes are,” he said.
Reddan, who grew up in Garden City Park and has lived there most of his life, said he was motivated to run by his two children – a third grader and a fifth grader attending district schools.
Notine said she’s running for the school board “to support the children.”
A 38-year resident of New Hyde Park, she grew up in the village and has two sons attending schools in the New Hyde Park- Garden City Park district. She has been a class mother at the Manor Oaks School for the past eight years. She has also been active in the Manor Oaks PTA.
Voting for residents in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park for both district’s budgets will be held on May 21 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Manor Oaks School at 1950 Hillside Ave. in New Hyde Park.
