New Hyde Park-Garden City Park elementary school provided the community with a comprehensive look at its budget proposal last week.
The board put forward a $48,633,975 budget, which the district proposes to be partially funded by a 2.35% tax levy increase, a number under the district’s 2.49% state-imposed tax levy cap. That increase will be felt as a roughly $92 annual tax increase for the average district family, said Deputy Superintendent Michael Frank.
“We are focused on putting together a budget that is meaningful to the children in the district but respectful to the district at large,” Frank said, adding that this year’s budget-to-budget increase was the lowest the district has had since he has been with the district and that this is the first year the district has been debt free in a significant amount of time.
The district’s proposed budget is up 1.11%, or $532,025, from this year’s $48,101,950. According to calculations by Schneps Media LI, the district spends roughly $12,041 per student.
Frank said the district expects around $11,018,425 in state aid, about a $28,000 decrease from last year. Frank said the lack of increase in aid will cause the district to tap into its reserves to bridge the gap.
The board identified budget highlights in the technology, special education, personnel, and facilities departments.
In terms of technology, the district plans to update the infrastructure and safety of the district’s technology, including the implementation of a firewall, newline touchscreen boards, new Chromebooks for kindergarten and fourth-grade students, and the integration of a typing program.
In the personnel and special education departments, the district will add one special education teacher, reassign two full-time teachers to become a full-time librarian and full-time special education coach, upgrade technology to better support reading and writing disabilities, expand the full day integrated co-teaching model through grade six and add additional specialized curriculum.
As for the facilities upgrades, significant improvements the district is looking to make include painting the stairwells and main corridors in Garden City Park School and New Hyde Park Road School, repainting and retiling the computer lab in Hillside Grade School, main office floor replacement and masonry repairs in Manor Oaks and continuation of districtwide door replacements.
Underneath the budget, voters will find a proposition to establish a new capital reserve. The proposition asks voters to weigh in on the creation of a reserve, or savings account, that could hold up to $10 million over 15 years to fund renovations or improvements to school buildings.
“This would continue our pathway of funding projects from within and not having to borrow,” Frank said, explaining that the money that is saved in the reserve cannot be spent unless the community approves of the projects, adding that the district has used its prior capital reserve for an indoor air quality improvement project which is projected is to be completed in the summer.
Along with the budget election and capital reserve proposition, three school board seats currently held by Kathryn Canese, Jenn Kerrane and Patricia Rudd will be up for election on May 20. All candidates who are running will be announced on the filing deadline of April 21.
Frank also emphasized that Sewanhaka Central High School District’s budget is independent of the elementary school budget and encouraged parents to attend their presentations as well. The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park elementary community is responsible for 25.4% of the high school budget’s tax levy, as the district is one of four elementaries that feeds into the high school.
District residents must be registered to vote in order to cast a ballot in the election.
