Herricks Board of Education honors National Merit finalists, presents budget

Maylan L. Studart
Herricks Board of Education honors National Merit finalists. Photo Credit: Herricks Public Schools Board of Education

By Maylan L. Studart

The Herricks Board of Education held a budget presentation and honored high-achieving students at a meeting last Thursday.

Superintendent of Schools Fino Celano, high school Principal Joan Keegan and members of the board honored 10 students who were finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program, an annual academic competition for recognition and college undergraduate scholarships.

Herricks High School’s Hannah Chu, Ankit Jain, Christina Kim, Simon Liu, Eish Maheshwari, Mariana Mohsen, Cayla Moy, Nicole Park, Uttsav Patel and Sahith Vadada are among approximately 15,000 students across the country to have been recognized as National Merit Finalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

Celano made the second presentation of the Herricks Public Schools’ 2019-20 proposed budget similar to a presentation made at the prior board meeting, but with a stronger focus on expenses.

The current proposed budget would increase by 2.75 percent to $3,149,593 from 2018-19 and has a projected tax levy increase of 2.21 percent over the same period that would remain within the tax levy cap. The average tax levy increase over the last five years has been 1.58 percent.

There will be two more budget presentations before the final budget is voted on and approved by the board.  Celano will also present the budget to the Herricks Parent-Teacher Association and other interested parties.

A budget hearing is set for May 9 for the board to vote and approve the budget and the public will get to vote on it on Tuesday, May 21.

Trustee Henry Zanetti encouraged residents to participate in the budget process.

“I urge people to attend some of the Board of Education meetings so they can learn more about the budget and process,” Zanetti said.

Also discussed in the meeting were some propositions to set up a capital reserve fund.

 

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