The tax levy for the 2014-15 school year was set at the Aug. 14 meeting of the Herricks Board of Education, and district residents may be surprised that it’s coming in a bit lower than the amount voters had previously approved.
Assistant Superintendent for Business Helen Costigan initially revealed the Herricks’ tax levy for the coming school year was a 1.73 percent increase. However, she noted that a surplus in the budget could allow the district to establish a lower levy than previously anticipated. The board adopted the new levy, 1.3 percent or $93,325,352.
“We have some additional funds, so I’m suggesting to the Board of Education to put in an additional $400,000,” she said. “If the board wishes to do that, it would lower the levy to 1.3 percent. The reason we have these additional funds is because we were able to fund our reserves, and once we were able to do so, we had to put this money into the budget, as well as give additional funds back to the taxpayers.”
“We want to be clear…we’re reducing the levy that the voters voted on, and we’re returning this extra money to the taxpayers,” Board President Jim Gounaris said. “It’s the taxpayer’s money, it’s not our money, and we’re making sure that they have their own money.”
Costigan noted that the 1.3 percent levy will not be sent to Nassau County, where the Office of Assessment will use the figure in determining the school taxes of Herricks residents for the upcoming school year. However, Gounaris was quick to point out that the calculations used in doing so, and the subsequent tax increases bestowed upon individual residents, was solely the responsibility of Nassau County and not the school district.
“We are not the ones who will be responsible for what the county does when they put their formula and ‘magic wand’ to play in figuring out the taxes of everyone this year,” he said. “Last year, there were people who had increases of 12 and even 15 percent when the tax levy was 1.8 percent. Everyone always comes back to us, but we want to be clear…we set the levy, but the county sets what your final tax bill will be.”
Costigan urged residents who are unhappy with their upcoming school tax increases—based upon Nassau County’s assessed value of individual residents’ homes—to be sure to contest such increases, as is their right—a right she said many people fail to exercise.
“If your neighbors are challenging the tax increase, and you don’t, then they will end up paying less and you’ll make up the difference,” she said.
Enrollment Rates Splits Classes
Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Bierwirth said that, due to higher-than-expected enrollment rates within Herricks, two classes at the Center Street School—one first grade, one second grade—would be broken up to reduce overall class sizes, and two additional teachers would be hired to take on the additional new classes added, he said.
“This will reduce class size to a more manageable level,” Bierwirth said. “Currently, the first grade at Center Street is three classes of 27 students, which is tough…now it will be four classes of 20 or so,” he said. “As for the two additional teachers, they had already been budgeted…we were just looking for the right place to plug them in, and this is it.”
State Test Scores In
Bierwirth said that the district had received the results of recent New York State assessment testing, and that Herricks had ranked better than average; however, he dismissed the controversial mandated tests (whose excessive preparation many parents complain has taken away from actual classroom learning time), noting that the results they provided were essentially old news.
“These tests didn’t tell us anything about a student that we didn’t know already,” he said. “They are not terribly useful.”
