At a meeting on Wednesday, March 25, the Hicksville School District presented its tentative budget for the 2015-16 annual school year, which if adopted, would increase the tax levy on residents by 0.69 percent,. As a result the new tentative budget number is $102,554,554.
New York State mandates that school districts can impose tax levies on residents up to 2 percent on a year-to-year basis. The 0.69 percent increase represents a $698,385 change from the 2014-15 school budget of $101,856,170.
“When we talk about the budget for the 2015-16 year we know that we’ve been met with some challenges,” said Mary Tannenbaum, assistant superintendent for business and the chair of the finance committee.
One challenge that the district met was a decrease in revenue from the county pertaining to payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOT. The district saw a drop in revenue of $1.2 million this year and expects to see the same drop next year as well.
Another major challenge facing the district is the lack of New York State aid. Hicksville’s 2014-15 aid was cut by $2,432,952 and over the previous four years, the state aid has been reduced by $11,564,564. Governor Andrew Cuomo made these cuts in response to the budget deficit that the state was dealing with during his first term. The state however now operates with a surplus but just recently released how much it would give to public schools, which left the district playing a guessing game when putting together their budget. State aid comprises 11 percent of revenue for the Hicksville School District.
There are new opportunities in the budget that will help students and faulty according to Tannenbaum. Built into the tentative budget is bolstering professional development throughout the district by integrating the use of technology with smartboards and developing new strategies to address the needs of maintaining the common core curriculum. The district is also adding additional school psychologists and speech teachers, as well as special education teachers and teaching assistants. This is being done to bring out of district students who require special education instruction back to district programs.
Also included in the budget is upgrades to the buildings. This includes a renovation of the Comet Shop at the high school, asphalt resealing at the elementary school basketball courts, stage curtain replacement at Dutch lane, and locker repair and repainting at the middle and high schools. The district is also proposing playground repairs and taking money from the capital budget for roof replacement at Burns Avenue, exterior wall and column repair at East Street and exterior gutter repair at the middle school.
“We want to continue to grow, we want to continue to be responsible,” said interim Hicksville school superintendent Carl Bonuso.
The next budget meeting will be held on April 15 at 7 p.m. at the administration building.
