Great Neck school district residents voted Tuesday to approve the district’s $218,927,365 budget for the 2016-17 school year and re-elect incumbent board member Monique Bloom to the district’s Board of Education.
The budget was approved with 84 percent of the vote — 975 to 182 .
Efforts to reach school board officials for comment on the budget
Bloom received 776 votes in her uncontested race for re-election to the school board.
Efforts to reach Bloom were unavailing.
The school budget calls for a $2,229,611 increase in spending over the current budget, but still requires a reduction of 14 teaching positions as well as 21 other employees to stay under the under the district’s .17 percent state-mandated tax cap.
Board Vice President Larry Gross said after hiring 24 new full-time positions last year the district needed to reduce the number of teachers by 14 in the 2016-17 school year.
District Assistant Superintendent for Business John Powell said that in addition to cutting the number of teachers 21 non-teaching positions needed to be eliminated to keep the budget under the cap.
These employees include one full-time administrative staff member, nine paraprofessionals, three full-time and three part-time clerical staff members, one buildings and grounds department supervisor and four cleaning attendants.
School officials said the district was looking at ways to rehire employees who get laid off.
The district will use $591,000 in restored Gap Elimination Adjustment funds for the restoration of school programs rather than to retain laid off teachers and school staff.
State legislators eliminated the Gap Elimination Adjustment, an unpopular method the state introduced in 2010 to cover a budget deficit at the expense of public schools, in approving a $155 billion budget last month. The elimination of the Gap Elimination Adjustment provided Long Island schools with an $155 million in additional funding.
While Great Neck schools did receive almost $591,000 in restored GEA funds, Superintendent of Schools Teresa Prendergast said, about $360,000 of it is a one-time payment.
The district will use the funds to restore the early morning drop-off program for elementary school students, hours for elementary English Language Arts and Math support programs, a percentage of the Student Index Allocation, which allows school building principals to use supply, material and equipment money and to continue the district’s technology initiatives.
The $360,000 one-time payment will be used to reduce the amount of money currently used from the district’s reserve fund to balance the budget.
The budget includes a $2 million increase in the salaries of district employees, a $1.65 million increase in the cost of employee health insurance benefits and a $1.25 million increase to special education services.
The district cut $1.4 million from the teachers’ retirement fund and almost $1 million from supplies and materials costs, and raised day school tuition charges to generate a $450,000 increase in revenues.
Bloom won her first full term on the board in March 2013 after being appointed in June 2012 to replace board Vice President Fran Langsner, who moved outside the school district.
She is a former United Parent-Teacher Council president.
