Local residents had one last chance this week to question Great Neck School District officials about the $17.2 million capital projects proposal, which will be the subject of a voter referendum on Tuesday.
During the Great Neck Board of Education meeting at the Cumberland Adult Center general purpose room on Monday, residents took part in a public hearing and raised concerns about the funding for the $17,184,085 capital project plan to renovate and improve the district’s aging grounds and facilities
District officials have maintained that the project will have no impact on taxpayers.
“We’re going to have a vote here in the district on a number of capital projects that will be financed from internal funds,” Great Neck School District Assistant Superintendent for Business John Powell said. “Over $17 million in unassigned fund balance will be used to finance these capital projects.”
Village of Great Neck Plaza resident Jeffrey Schwartz, however, questioned the origin of the district’s unassigned fund balance.
“At first blush, it seems to me that perhaps you’re collecting more tax money than you need,” Schwartz said. “Maybe taxes should have been adjusted in prior years so we don’t end up with the kind of surplus or this unassigned fund balance.”
“Maybe you could explain the unassigned fund balance to me,” he added,” because I just feel like maybe we’re being taxed too much.”
When board members approved the capital projects proposal in December, Powell said the district’s unassigned fund balance was “established over a number of years through conservative budgeting practices and more favorable, as opposed to unfavorable, economic events.”
The district’s unassigned fund balance has accumulated from revenue savings over previous expenditures, net transfers to reserve accounts and appropriations for the subsequent year’s budget, Powell said.
“If we didn’t have that fund balance we would have had to go out … and borrow the money,” Great Neck Board of Education Trustee Donald Ashkenase said. “The long-term costs of that are greater because you have a debt service payment over any number of years. We are very fortunate to have accumulated this unassigned fund balance to make it available to meet these compelling capital needs.”
Trustee Lawrence Gross also touted the district’s ability to save money during its budget process and dismissed the idea that residents have been taxed at too high of a rate.
“Our budget is a little less than $200 million,” Gross said. “You have a revenue function of the budget and you have an expenditure function. It’s something that’s set well in advance.”
Over the past two years, Gross said the district has received revenue “well in excess” of what was budgeted for and has seen state mandates such as medical insurance costs rising at less than expected rates.
Gross said these were the real reasons the district has been able to accumulate the fund balance, not an inflated tax rate.
“This doesn’t always occur, but we’ve had fortuitous circumstances,” Gross said.
If the capital projects proposal is passed by voters on Tuesday, the district will still have $8 million of unassigned fund balance at its disposal, as well as $12 million in “reserved or restricted fund balances for works compensation, unemployment insurance, employees benefits and retirement contribution,” Powell said.
If the district had chosen to fund the capital projects program through a bond, Powell said it would have had to pay $23 million in interest over a period of 20 years.
“We don’t look to spend down every penny that we have,” Great Neck Board of Education President Barbara Berkowitz said. “It’s because of fiscal planning that we haven’t had to go out for a bond and that we’re able to do these things without closing schools and without saying now we’ve got to go out and find the money.”
The $17.2 million capital projects program list includes 39 improvement projects at various district buildings.
“We do a facilities survey every year,” Powell said. “We decided that these were the most pressing items that needed to be done at this time.”
Residents will be able to vote on the referendum in two locations from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Tuesday. For voters living north of the Long Island Rail Road, ballots can be cast at E.M. Baker Elementary School, while residents living south of the LIRR can vote at Great Neck South High School.
In other business, the board unanimously approved its 2012-13 school year calendar during the meeting.
“The teachers agreed to come in one extra day over the summer,” Great Neck School District Superintendent Thomas Dolan said. “Even though the kids aren’t there, that meant I could get my arms around the fact that this was educationally sound.”
The school year will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 4 and will include time off for students for the district’s regular week-long February break and all significant religious holidays, Dolan said.
“The kids are not here in August and we end on time,” Dolan said. “It does mean that there will be 183, rather than 184 (school) days, but that’s been done once before and it was certainly worth the trade off given the concerns that we heard.”
