Residents in the Herricks school district will vote on the 2020–21 school budget in next Tuesday’s election. Additionally, incumbent Trustees Henry R. Zanetti and James Gounaris are being challenged by Bhajan S. Ratra and Tarantej S. Arora, respectively.
The election is being conducted with absentee ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The budget of $120,534,523 is a 2.547 percent increase from the current budget of $117,541,264.
The primary reason for the increase is the district’s contractual obligations, according to Board of Education members. Contractual obligations such as raises for teachers and health care contributions mandated by the state account for about $1.8 million of the approximately $3 million increase.
Another $800,000 to $900,000 will be used to replace the entire wide area network, which they say has long been a complaint from students, teachers and parents.
Zanetti and Gounaris said the upgrade was supposed to happen two or three years ago, but the grant from the state did not come through when it was supposed to. The board finally decided to put it in the budget rather than wait for the state funding, which would be to the detriment of students and teachers, they explained.
The proposed tax levy increase is 2.35 percent, the limit for the district under state rules. The district has stayed under the tax levy limit every year since it was instituted, Zanetti pointed out, adding that the average for the past five years is 1.78 percent.
Due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Herricks, like all districts in New York, faces potential cuts in state aid of up to 20 percent.
The board numbered each item in the budget one through five, with one being the most important items to preserve, said Zanetti.
“We have built into the budget enough one-time items that we can prioritize those and hold back from spending that money if state aid is cut,” he said.
He said that if the budget passes, the district will have the ability to compensate for state aid cuts.
“The challenge is to make sure this budget passes,” added Gounaris. “If the budget fails and we have to start going into a contingency budget, there are some really tough implications with that. There are risks inherent with what we can do. To preserve class sizes and to preserve the programs we have in place right now for every child without any cuts, we really need to have this budget pass.”
