Board Asks Residents To Petition State; Feirsen Presents Non-Instructional Budget

The Garden City School District, led by Board of Education trustees Angie Heineman and Laura Hastings, has joined a coalition of schools known as the Long Island Educational Advocacy District in order to ask the governor for mandate reform.

The effort stems largely from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that there will be a significant drop in state aid to schools and that there may be a potential tax levy cap on districts.

“We are basically working together with a number of other Long Island districts to say, ‘We need relief, we need property tax reform. This area just cannot be sustained without it,’” Heineman said.

The coalition, in its letter to the governor and other state leaders, requests that the state rework the pension system to make it more self-sustaining, give school districts the power to negotiate fiscally responsible agreements, enable school districts to create reserve funds for pension contributions, allow schools to bid out capital projects at competitive rates, allow the school to assess its own transportation needs and reform tenure to base it on effectiveness and work ethic rather than seniority.

Heineman and Hastings asked that Garden City residents make a copy of the letter, sign it and send it to Governor Cuomo.

“What Albany understands are voters,” Heineman said.

“We have much to lose if there is a tax cap that does not take out unfunded mandates or give the school districts any leeway in what their districts need,” Hastings said. “The things that are not mandated are things that many of us consider essential to our district and part of our way of life.”

Hastings cited Advanced Placement (AP) programs, the marching program, class size and athletics as a few areas that could be hurt without more help from the state.

Also at Wednesday's meeting, Superintendent Dr. Robert Feirsen gave his second budget presentation, focusing on non-instructional components. The proposed overall budget stands at $101,117,058, a 3.19 percent increase over the 2010-11 budget with a projected tax levy increase (with STAR) of 2.71 percent.

Most of the increases in the non-instructional budget are state-mandated.

Employee benefits are up 8.87 percent to $23,768,031, as pension costs have increased from 8.62 percent to approximately 11.25 percent for teachers and administrators, and from 11.4 to 15.9 percent for all other employees. Mandated health care costs have also increased in excess of 13 percent.

In addition, state aid is projected to be cut by 13.61 percent, and the district is forced to pay a new Nassau County water usage fee of approximately $100,000.  The district also must pay approximately $200,000 as part of the MTA payroll tax, though it will get that money back from the state eventually.

Transportation spending is up a proposed 6.17 percent, mostly based on the purchase of three new school buses. The district had intended to purchase three new buses every year, but only bought one for 2010-11 in order to help drive down overall budget costs.

“I think we’re not in as dire shape as we otherwise could be because we have good mechanics,” Feirsen said. “[Wear and tear] will catch up eventually, though.”

In response to the high level of mandated spending, residents asked Feirsen and the board of education to look closely at discretionary spending. Some suggested that cutting an administrator might be more appropriate than cutting more teaching staff and that the district should try to reduce mailing costs by going paperless as much as possible.

Still, Feirsen urged residents to wait for an explanation of exactly where money will go before becoming frustrated.

“I would urge you some caution in this regard… the meaning behind the numbers isn’t clear until [Assistant Superintendent for Business Al] Chase and I explain it,” Feirsen said.

Board president Colleen Foley announced that trustee Laura Brown had resigned her position on the board, effective immediately, due to health reasons. The board has three options: hold a special election in the next 90 days, appoint someone to the position until the next round of elections or leave the position vacant until the next election.

The board asked that residents take a survey from the National School Public Relations Association in order for the district to better understand local demographics and find out what information is most important to residents.  Residents can sign up for the survey, which is anonymous, on the district’s website.

Budget Work Session #3 (instructional components) will take place March 2 at the high school at 8:15 p.m. unless otherwise announced.