Sewanhaka budget relieved by state aid boost

Noah Manskar

A $1.6 million state aid boost allowed the Sewanhaka school district to add 15 staff to its $184.1 million 2016-2017 budget, restoring some cuts made over the past several years, district officials said Tuesday.

While school board President David Fowler said the extra money is a “one-shot” increase, it helps the district in a tight tax cap year and will lighten the workload of the current teacher and counseling staff, district Superintendent Ralph Ferrie said.

“It’s a relief, but there’s also — certainly we’re going to be monitoring closely as we go forward to make sure that we continue going in this direction,” Ferrie said.

Sewanhaka will hire eight new teachers, two guidance counselors and five part-time athletic trainers with its full reimbursement for the “gap elimination adjustment,” money the state withheld to close budget gaps in 2010 and 2011, Ferrie said.

The district will also reduce the amount of reserves used in the budget to $5.5 million from $6 million, he said.

Sewanhaka High School and Floral Park Memorial High School will each get an additional counselor because their student-to-counselor ratios are “significantly higher” than the district’s other three schools, Ferrie said. The eight teachers will be distributed across all subject areas, he said.

The funding boost allowsfor the restoration of staff cuts made in the wake of the 2008 economic recession to a greater extent than it has in the past couple years, Fowler said.

“It’s certainly something that is very, very helpful, certainly in maintaining programs,” he said. “That’s always been the goal throughout, so that a student coming into our buildings isn’t seeing change in a negative fashion.”

The budget reflects an increase of 3 percent, or about $5.3 million, over the current year’s. The tax levy is set to rise 0.4 percent to $136.2 million, the maximum the district is allowed under the state’s tax levy cap.

The budget also includes a plan to outfit every Sewanhaka student with an Apple iPad over three years using $3.2 million in state money from the 2014 Smart Schools Bond Act.

The district will distribute the tablets to teachers over the summer, to seventh-graders in August and to eighth-graders next spring, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Cheryl Champ has said. New iPads will be introduced and sold back to Apple on a three-year cycle.

A small increase in the consumer price index, a cost-of-living indicator, has given many municipalities little room to increase taxes this year under the state law. Sewanhaka’s allowed increase was revised upward from 0.3 percent after the district got a picture of its incoming payments in lieu of taxes.

Many school officials have said the state increased aid packages across the board to compensate for tight levy caps. Fowler said the state’s surplus and the fact that it’s an election year were also likely factors.

“The even-numbered years tend to be better years,” he said.

Ferrie said he thanked the district’s representatives in Albany for securing the extra funding.

The Sewanhaka school board will hold a public hearing on the budget at 8 p.m. on May 4 before residents vote on it May 17.

Share this Article