Nine North Shore school districts with a combined population of 37,384 students plan to spend $1.1 billion in the coming school year, amounting to about $29,493 per pupil overall – with some districts spending nearly 50 percent more per student than others.
While the districts are only a few miles apart, disparities nearing $12,000 per student exist. Three districts – East Williston, Great Neck and Roslyn – each spend more than $34,000 per student, while the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park and Sewanhaka school districts spend $22,951 and $23,631 per student respectively.
These numbers were calculated by dividing the total budget by the number of students.
According to the state Department of Education, the average cost per pupil in New York for the 2016-17 school year was $23,361, which is based on dividing total expenditures by the number of students.
“Total expenditures include district expenditures for classroom instruction, as well as expenditures for transportation, debt service, community service and district-wide administration that are not included in the Instructional Expenditure values for General Education and Special Education,” according to the department’s website.
Officials at the Great Neck Public Schools previously debated the value of analyzing the budget by dividing expenditures by the number of pupils, saying it is an “inaccurate figure” due to a number of other figures in the budget having “nothing to do with our K-12 program” like adult education programs, pre-kindergarten, maintaining buildings and providing money to private schools.
“You can’t just take the budget and divide it by the enrollment because you have to take out operational revenues that come in that reduce the expenditures [for students],” John Powell, the assistant superintendent for business, said in a previous interview.
Instead, Powell said the schools spend $16,512 per regular elementary school student and $24,386 per secondary student. For special education students, those numbers are $79,384 and $87,258.
If calculated using the simpler method, the Great Neck Public Schools – with a projected student population of 6,637 students across its 10 schools – plans to spend $34,631 per student through its $229.84 million proposed budget.
According to this method of calculation, the Roslyn schools plan to spend $34,644 per student – more than any other district. The proposed budget is $109.9 million and the district has 3,174 students.
East Williston, under its proposed $60 million spending plan, would see a cost per pupil of $34,526. The district has 1,738 students.
Mineola’s school district, with a student population of 2,900 and planned budget of $98.19 million, would have a cost per pupil of $33,860.
Manhasset school district’s calculated cost per pupil of $29,589 is roughly at the average among North Shore schools. The schools, with a population of 3,257 students, plan to spend $96.36 million.
The Herricks school district, with a student population of 4,008 and a proposed $114.39 million spending plan, would have a cost per pupil of $28,541 – slightly below the North Shore average.
A few hundred dollars below that is the Port Washington school district, which would have a cost per pupil of $28,072 under its $155.94 million spending plan. The district has 5,555 students.
The Sewanhaka and New Hyde Park-Garden City Park districts, with a combined population of 10,115 students as of last year, spend the least per pupil and more than $10,000 less per pupil than Roslyn, Great Neck, East Williston and Mineola – the four districts calculated to spend the most per pupil.
New Hyde Park-Garden City Park is one of five elementary districts that feed into the Sewanhaka high schools.
The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park schools, with a $39.2 million proposed budget and 1,710 students, spend $22,951 per pupil. The Sewanhaka school district, meanwhile, has a $198.62 million proposed budget, 8,405 students and a cost per pupil of $23,631.
Each school district also appears to vary widely in other areas: special education costs, costs incurred from assisting private schools under state law, and how many students are affected by this.
According to the tentative budget, the special education budget for Great Neck surpassed all other districts with $31.14 million in spending. An exact number of students and a confirmation of the costs were not provided to Blank Slate Media, but the budget suggests there are at least 1,122 students benefiting from special education.
Port Washington spends the second most on special education for its 838 qualifying students, with a $19.7 million budget for students with disabilities.
Manhasset spends $13.04 million for the 500 students in its special education program, Herricks spends $11.87 million for the 504 students in its special education program, Mineola spends $11 million for 490 children, East Williston spends $7.85 million for 182 students, and Roslyn spends $10.49 million for its 297 special education students.
The New Hyde Park-Garden City and Sewanhaka school districts did not provide an exact special education budget, but have 189 and 1,008 students in special education, respectively, as of last year, according to the state Department of Education.
The Sewanhaka schools eclipsed all other districts in terms of state aid, being set to receive $35.28 million for the $198.61 million budget. The second largest recipient of state aid is Herricks, which is slated to get about $12 million.
Great Neck will get $9.6 million in state aid for its $229.84 million budget, Mineola is set to get $7.65 million for its $98.19 million budget, East Williston will receive $3.89 million for its $60 million budget, Manhasset will get $4.58 million for its $96.36 million budget, and Roslyn will get $5.43 million for its $109.95 million budget — the smallest increase Roslyn has seen in five years.
Great Neck spends more than $5.16 million for students attending school outside the district, according to Powell, between transportation costs, health services, supplies and textbooks.
The bulk of that – $4.74 million – goes toward transporting 1,827 students to 71 private and parochial schools, according to the budget, which can be up to 15 miles away from a student’s residence.
The costs and number of students appear far above what other districts offer.
Roslyn has 191 students in the district who attend private or parochial schools, and the district spends approximately $300,000 for those students — $40,000 for textbooks as well as $259,682 for transportation.
East Williston said there are 154 students outside of the district, costing the district $674,959.
Mineola schools have a $520,660 expense to provide for 500 students attending school outside the district.
Manhasset has 254 students attending schools outside the district, costing $358,621.
Port Washington has 533 students attending schools outside the district, to whom they provide transportation, textbooks and computer software, which costs the district about $426,000.
None of the other districts said how much they spend on students attending outside the district.
Voters will decide on the proposed budgets on May 15.
Amelia Camurati, Rebecca Klar and Luke Torrance contributed to this report.
