Hearing of a 0% tax levy increase may sound unbelievable to residents of most of Nassau’s school districts.
But, at Westbury, it’s business as usual – At least in recent history.
Superintendent Tahira DuPree Chase said at Tuesday’s board meeting that the district would not impose any tax levy increase on its residents for the third year in a row to fund its proposed $201,341,468 budget, which is up 1.22% from last year’s $198,918,211 financial plan. According to calculations by Schneps Media LI, the district spends $44,485.52 per student.
“We freeze taxes so that taxpayers do not have to be concerned with their school taxes being increased to address the school’s needs,” Chase said.
Board members emphasized that creative management and hard work allowed the district to build its budgets without increasing the tax levy.
The median taxpayer in the district pays $9,471.29 annually, or $789.27 monthly, in school taxes.
The district expects $99,017,128 in state aid and to use $16,850,105 in appropriated reserves, which together are projected to fund the majority of its budget.
But it hasn’t always been this way, said board President Robert Troiano. He said the district used to have one of the highest school tax rates in North Hempstead before a recent lawsuit changed how foundation aid, a form of state aid that considers a district’s wealth when determining how much is to be awarded, is funded and distributed to districts.
“For many years, the Westbury School District was underfunded by foundation aid. Taxpayers had to make up the difference,” Troiano explained. “When the state agreed to make good on its constitutional requirement to fund school districts based on the needs of their students and their parents, we got a huge increase in foundation aid. After that, this board decided that it was only appropriate to start a program to reduce taxes.”
The majority, 65.8%, of the district’s proposed budget is projected to go to salaries and benefits. BOCES expenses make up 12.32% of the proposed budget, contractual services and transportation make up 7.22% and 5.98%, respectively, and supplies, materials, equipment, tuition for out-of-district placements, and debt services each account for less than 5% of the presented financial plan.
Chase emphasized that all of the district’s programs would be maintained, with some academic programs, including the district’s social-emotional learning, Saturday school program, which offers STEAM and fine and performing arts lessons to students over the weekend, summer school offerings, and out-of-district experiences, like field trips, to be expanded.
The four programs are projected to experience a collective $513,600 investment increase across them.
In terms of capital projects, the district proposed $1,445,000 to be spent on facility improvements across over a dozen projects, including band room renovations and septic repair in the high school, home economics and technology room repairs in the middle school, floor and ceiling repairs in Drexel Avenue School and Powells Lane Elementary School and playground renovations at Park Avenue Elementary School.
“This is a budget with a purpose: to build global citizenry and prepare our scholars for opportunities that don’t yet exist. We want our scholars to be at the forefront of global enterprise,” Chase said. “We’re not just putting out numbers to put out numbers.”
She emphasized that anyone in the community with questions related to the proposal could email budget@westburyschools.org, an inbox created specifically for budget questions.
The district’s final budget presentations will take place on April 8, when the board will vote on adopting the budget and on May 6, for the annual budget hearing. The districtwide budget vote is set for May 20.
