Schools
Lindenhurst BOE Adopts $145.7M 2013-14 School Budget
The finalized budget includes a 1.99 percent tax levy, plus the removal of 66-plus aides and the use of $1.1 million in reserves.
The Lindenhurst Board of Education officially adopted on Thursday night the $145,681,328 2013-14 school budget and a 1.99 percent tax levy ($90,703,099).
“This is the lowest tax levy in past 15 years, and among the lowest in comparison to ones being presented this year in other surrounding school districts,” Superintendent Richard Nathan said during his presentation to the public on Wednesday night William Rall Elementary School.
The tax levy for 2012-13 was 2.45 percent, less than the Lindenhurst School District’s tax levy allowance per New York State two percent tax cap law.
For the 2011-12 school year - the last before the tax cap was put in place - it was 6.89 percent. For 2010-11 it was 3.89 percent.
Using Reserves
To get to the final tax levy of 1.99 percent the Board voted to use $1.1 million in reserves, leaving roughly $4.4 million left in the unappropriated funds available to use to lower the tax levy.
(Read more about that here, and click here to access the PDF file containing the current fund balance analysis as of April 19, 2013 - just prior to the adoption on April 25 - on the District’s website.)
In addition, the District expects an increase in state aid of $1.5 million, for a total of $46,890,774.
(Read more about the District’s state aid here.)
The $145.7 million in expenditures for next school year includes a year-over-year 2.84 percent ($4,022,332) increase.
The 2013-14 expenditures break down this way:
- Program: $110,565,073 (75.90 percent).
- Capital: $20,556,104 (14.11 percent).
- Administrative: $14,560,151 (9.99 percent).
This budget, according to Nathan, also cuts 66-plus special education aides at a savings of roughly $858,000.
The cuts, he noted, are due to a change in the special education model from Inclusion to Integrated Co-Teaching that, he assured, will continue to follow all IEPs and 504s.
(Read more about that here. Click here to access the PDF file about this change to special education and here for a PDF file containing a more complete explanation of ICT on the District’s website.)
Other Personnel Changes
Other changes mainly due to declining enrollment, shifts in instructional positions and attrition included:
- The elimination at the elementary level of three sixth grade positions and addition of six more - two each of special education, math and English.
- The elimination at the middle school level of 9.7 positions and the addition of six more - two each of special education, math and English.
- The elimination at the high school level of 16.5 positions and the addition of 12.2.
- The elimination of one administrative, one clerical and one custodial position.
Other Cuts
Cuts also included $300,000 allocated in next year’s budget for transportation for Hurricane Sandy-displaced students since the number has decreased from 160 at a cost of $80,000 a month to 49 at a cost of $18,000 a month.
The District expects that number to decrease even further come September based on constant contact with displaced families.
It also expects to receive back roughly two-thirds of the almost $500,000 it’ll have spent by June as a result of Senator Chuck Schumer’s call for federal transportation relief for superstorm-stricken districts.
(Read more about that here.)
Preserved Program
Those programs the BOE either kept from being cut or modified included:
- JROTC (net cost: $186,878).
- Marching Band (stayed as competitive versus non-competitive; cost: $47,476).
- Seventh- and Eighth-Grade Sports Teams (weren’t combined; cost: $83,000).
- Eighth-Grade Advanced Art Program (cost: $107,568).
- Four-Fifths Section of Psychology (cost: $57,692).
- Film Study (cost: $106,960).
- Three Sections of Theater Arts (cost: $76,439).
- Fourth-Grade Instrumental Program (cost: $362,930).
Budget Vote and Trustee Election
The Annual Budget Vote and Trustee Election will take place on Tuesday, May 21, as usual, at Albany Avenue, Daniel Street, Harding Avenue and William Rall Elementary Schools.
And those residents who voted last year at Alleghany Avenue Elementary School vote this year at the Lindenhurst Middle School, according to the District on its website here.
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. the day of the vote.
A BOE Community Forum is also scheduled that night at the McKenna Administration Building at 8 p.m.
(Click here to access the Update Registrant Information Form on the District's website.)
Field of Eight
The field of eight that’s running for four BOE seats doesn’t include incumbent Ray Doran, but does include three incumbents and five new candidates.
Running for Doran’s spot are three newcomers:
- Linda Eisen.
- Robert Voyles.
- Lynn Aniello.
(Read more about this here and why Doran isn’t running here.)
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(Click here to access the PDF file containing the 2013-14 school budget draft as of April 15, 2013 - just prior to the finalization on April 17 - on the District’s website.)
(Click here to access the PDF file containing the current list of 2013-14 school budget presentations the superintendent is doing at various venues around the community on the District’s website.)
(Click here to access more 2013-14 school budget information and details about the upcoming Budget Vote and Trustee Election, voter registration and polling places on the District’s website.)
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