The Herricks Board of Education began work on crafting the school district’s 2015-’16 spending plan in the first of four public budget planning sessions on Feb. 3.
However, if the budget presentation given by the board was any indication, it seems that Herricks is certainly thinking long-term with their goals, planning out both projected tax levies, revenue and other potential financial factors well into 2019.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Bierwirth seemed to enjoy that in his last year at his post, he was able to help usher in a spending plan that sees the possible restoration of previously cut positions and services. This is opposed to previous years of financial hardships faced by the district due to New York State budget cuts to school aid, rising insurance and retirement costs and other factors, Bierwirth said.
“It’s really nice to be able to present a nice budget,” he said. “We had three years where we cut a lot of positions. Last year we didn’t cut anything and we added back a few. This year, we did what we had to do and created the budget in a very appropriate and responsible way…98 percent of New York schools districts had to spend money out of their reserves to maintain services, but we did not do that.”
Bierwirth said that improvements to the Herricks financial situation can be attributed to significant drops in the rates of teacher retirement system contribution rates after more than a decade of sharp annual increases. Also, Bierwirth said that the district is assuming an average increase in state aid of 3.5 percent per year. This constitutes a relatively small percentage of the Herricks budget, covered by the school’s own revenues, which include local taxes, currently projected to be $108,150,349 for the 2015-’16 school year.
Currently, the projected tax levy for next year is 1.62 percent. This could change with the delivery of the final budget numbers. New York State law currently limits school districts to limit their levies to the rate of inflation or 2 percent, whichever is less.
Bierwirth presented estimated levies for the next three school years, with 2016-’17 totaling 1.85 percent and the two subsequent school years at 2 percent.
Restoring Class Size
One of the more noteworthy aspects of the budget plan presented that evening was the restoration of class size guidelines for Herricks’ elementary schools. Additional teachers can be rehired, Bierwirth said, which should go a long way towards reducing overall class sizes to a far more manageable teacher-to-student ratio.
“We all know how tough it was for the Board to suspend those guidelines, how painful it has been,” he said. “Not only will we restore guidelines, which will have benefits in addition to reducing class sizes…principals and teachers will be able to plan better and not have to wait until August to know if they’re going to have four sections or three.”
Positions are slated to be added to the high school and middle school as well, Bierwirth said, although it is not currently known in what capacity they will be serving.
Student Enrollment
Christine Finn, newly-appointed Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, gave a brief presentation of student enrollment in the district as it relates to overall elementary school class sizes.
“According to class size guidelines, kindergarten has a maximum class size of 22, grades 1 through 3 is 24, and grades 4 through 5 is 27,” she said. “Happily, we will be able to keep that under those guidelines next year.”
Sustainability, Bierwirth said, was the game plan when planning out the Herricks budget not just for 2015-’16, but for the foreseeable future as well.
“Even with the projected tax levy increases, we believe that the district can restore many of the most detrimental cuts which the district was forced to make and move forward in significant ways in several critical areas,” he said. “With good planning and reasonable restraint, it should be possible to maintain programs and services beyond 2018-’19.”
