RSS 2.0 FeedMay 6, 2011, Wantagh Seaford Citizen
Proposed school budgets on May 17 ballot
Residents of Wantagh, Seaford and Levittown will vote on proposed school budgets on May 17 for the 2011-2012 school year.
Wantagh
The Wantagh School District will place a $70,194,507 million budget on the May 17 ballot. This budget represents a 1.46% increase over this year’s budget and a tax levy increase of 3.99%. For a home assessed at $411,600 a resident will pay $311 more in taxes.
Dr. Lydia Begley, superintendent of Wantagh Schools, told The Citizen in an earlier interview that this budget was the lowest budget-to-budget increase in 11 years.
Wantagh will lose almost $2 million in state aid. Additionally, the district is facing increasing costs for retirement contributions. For the 2011-2012 year that cost will be approximately $3.5 million. Unfunded mandates account for another $1.8 million for the 2011-2012 school year.
To help offset these costs, the district will use $2 million from the general fund, plus $565,000 from the reserves to keep the tax levy increase down.
The 2011-2012 budget preserves academic programs and keeps the current class size at the elementary level.
A new class in electronic keyboarding will be given at the middle school and eight grade students will receive new social studies textbooks.
Meanwhile at the high school, a new class in digital media publishing will be offered to students.
All sports teams are intact including separate grade seven-eight teams.
There was a budget hearing on May 5 at 8 p.m. at Wantagh High School.
Three candidates are running for two seats on the Wantagh school board. They are incumbent Michael Cucci and challengers Michael Soethout and Mitch Zerner.
Seaford
The Seaford School District will place a $55,181,680 million budget on the May 17 ballot. This budget represents a 2.92% budget to budget increase and an 8.99% tax levy increase. For a home assessed at $378,500, this represents an increase of $600 in taxes, copared to $543 with a contingency (defeated) budget.
In a letter to The Citizen, Brian Conboy, superintendent of Seaford Schools and school board President Brian Fagan told The Citizen “the process of where and what to cut was a painful and emotional one for the administration and the board. Increased class sizes, reductions in curricular and extracurricular programs, test preparation academies, summer reading and math programs, elimination of most chairpeople and line-by-line analysis of the entire district budget were necessary.”
Seaford will lose $1.5 million in state aid and has not yet replaced the revenue it lost from the rental of the vacant Seaford Avenue School.
Additionally, the district is one of the 10% in the state that does not have reserve funds from which to draw. Over the last six years, those funds, totaling about $6.4 million, have been used to keep the tax levy down.
This budget eliminates 25 full- and part-time positions including 10 teachers, 12 chairperson positions and three custodial and clerical persons. It ends the summer remediation program and the test prep academies during the school year as well as reducing the seventh grade boys and girls basketball program and the seventh grade girls volleyball program.
The district did not receive any give- backs from the teacher’s union, as did some nearby school districts in Merrick and Bellmore. This coming school year Seaford teachers are due to receive a 2.5% increase, plus steps. As of July, teachers will contribute 16.5% to the costs for health insurance
If the budget is defeated twice, the district will have a contingency budget as set by state law. The contingency budget is based upon a combination of the most recent federally set cost of living allowance plus an allowance for additional debt service. For 2011-2012 that increase would be $1,209,701 or a 2.26% budget-to-budget increase that translates into an 8.12% tax hike.
Also on the ballot are two other propositions. Proposition Two is a request for permission to use $596,719 in remaining funds from the bond issue passed in 2007 to construct a driveway at Seaford Harbor Elementary School.
Proposition Three is a request to change transportation mileage limits from 1.5 miles for high school students and one mile for middle school students to .8 miles for high school and middle school students, which would add an additional $130,950 to the tax levy.
Three candidates are running for two positions on the school board. They are incumbents Richard DiBlasio and Brian Fagan and challenger Laura Phillips.
There will a budget hearing on Thursday, May 5, 7:30 p.m. at Seaford High School and a budget presentation on Tuesday, May 12, 7:30 p.m. at the Seaford Public Library.
Levittown
The Levittown School District will place a $197,907,475 budget on the May 17 ballot. This represents a 2.63 percent budget-to-budget increase and a 3.43 percent tax levy increase.
Three open seats on the Levittown school board are on the ballot: Incumbents Mike Pappas and Peter Porrazzo, as well as Frank Ward, are all running unopposed.
