The Sewanhaka Central High School District administration is proposing budget cuts totaling $2.7 million, including $1 million in teaching positions, in a $166.6 million budget representing a 6.6 percent increase from the district’s current budget and an 8.7 percent tax levy hike.
Cutting $1 million in teaching salaries and benefits would mean eliminating 15 full-time and part-time teaching positions in the district’s five middle school and high schools, according to Sewanhaka Superintendent of Schools Warren Meierdiercks.
After presenting the budget numbers at Tuesday night’s school board meeting, Meierdiercks said he is “optimistic” about getting cooperation from the district’s employees on revisiting the terms of their contracts. The projected budget includes a 4 percent rise in salaries to $96 million.
“We’re talking about getting the contracts reopened to get concessions from these bargaining units to get these budget numbers addressed,” Meierdirecks said.
After the meeting, Meierdiercks said the respective bargaining units had indicated that they are “willing to talk.”
That could be crucial to paring the budget down to numbers voters in the district can accept, since the proposed budget would push the tax levy up by nearly 9 percent to $131 million.
“If we were to go out with the current numbers, I don’t think the public would find it palatable,” board member David Del Santo said.
Felix Procacci, a member of the citizen budget advisory committee for the Franklin Square School District, pointed out that 30 percent of the teachers in the Sewanhaka district make more than $100,000 in annual salary. He said costs in the district have doubled over the past decade.
“The cost has been exorbitant. We’re getting less and we’re paying more. There’s something wrong there,” Procacci said.
The $2.7 million in cuts already proposed include $338,303 from the district athletic programs, $320,000 for evening high school, $311,000 for summer school, $236,000 from building budgets, $117,000 in textbooks, $105,000 from adult education, $72,800 for school clubs and supervision, $71,000 for athletic director’s summer days and $13,000 in mini-grants.
If the budget is rejected, a contingency budget would require the school board to reduce the proposed budget by $7.3 million, Meierdiercks said.
“People are complaining about small things. We’re worried about big things coming out of the budget. We’re worried about people,” board president Jean Fichtl said.
Meierdiercks also presented a list of essential capital projects at the five high school totaling $1.5 million. That list includes installation of a new fire alarm system and replacing the elevator in New Hyde Park Memorial High School for $385,000, renovation of fire escapes in Sewanhaka High School for $230,000, repair of brick and window panels at H. Frank Carey High School for $200,000 and replacement of gym bleachers in Elmont High School for $115,000.
Board members expressed frustration over the district’s situation because of the current state fiscal crunch, with an anticipated year-to-year drop of nearly $1 million in state aid.
“We’re cheap. We don’t spend a lot,” board member Joseph Armocida said.
Sewanhaka currently ranks 54th among the 57 Nassau County school districts in per pupil spending at $17,287.
“They’re telling us to use our reserves, but our reserves are there for a reason, if a boiler breaks,” Fichtl said.
Meierdirecks said that the administration has already put $4 million in reserves in the budget “to get where are with this tax levy.”
The superintendent said the board would meet in executive session after the public meeting to discuss prospective personnel reductions.
“I know we haven’t presented you much, but we don’t have much to present, except to say there will be program cuts and personnel.”
He said under normal circumstances, the board would have the budget finalized by now, but because of the “dynamic, changing process” with no final numbers on state aid yet, he said the board would have to schedule two more public budget meetings this month before it’s finalized.
