Herricks Board Debates Teaching Positions in 2012-13 Budget

Struggling with New York State’s new 2 percent tax cap, members of the Herricks Board of Education mulled over moving approximately $280,000 from their reserve funds for in order to keep class sizes down below district limits.

Class sizes are reportedly already over the limit in several classes on the elementary levels and using the reserve funds would create four new teaching positions to keep the class sizes down.

“We have to budget positions, just not earmark them until the board’s (done looking) at class sizes and decided that we needed (them),”  Superintendent Dr. John Bierwirth said during the board’s March 1 meeting at the . “We build a budget based on what we think we will need.”

Legally in terms of the budget the board has the right to move the money from one personnel line to another, but not for capital projects or equipment.

“The bigger question is what promises you might make to the community and then if you’ve made very strict promises then people will hold you to those,” the superintendent said about how the board will use the money.

“Actually, it’s reduced enrollment but it is maintaining the practice of this year, which includes going over the cap,” Dr. Bierwirth said. “Enrollment is going down. If we were maintaining the practices before this year, we would not be reducing any positions and we wouldn’t have reduced as many positions in 2011-12.”

There is also reduced enrollment in sixth grade with the district eliminating two teaching positions in that grade. The district shed 62.8 total positions last year and an additional 20 this year.

Last year the district had more money than anticipated and it was recommended that $1 million be put into the unemployment cost over the following two to 3 years, knowing that they would be shedding positions.

“By doing that it would at least mean that we would only be cutting the positions that we had to rather than cutting positions on top of the ones we had to cut in order to pay the unemployment insurance of the first people,” Bierwirth said, noting that the district budgeted $0 for unemployment for 2012-13.

Bierwirth said that “depending on how bad next year is,” it was his belief that next year they would be cutting more positions than this year, but the biggest factors as to just how many are health insurance and pensions. “The fact that we have been able to cut 60-some odd positions this year and maybe 80-plus over two and still basically maintain the same programs and services for students is remarkable, but it’s quite a stress.”

Given the financial challenges facing the district next year and going forward, the superintendent had made a recommendation to the board as an option to change the mileage limitation at the high school, reinstating the state minimums.

“I did not see any in which we were going to have enough money to add busses and change the high school start time,” he said.

If the high school reverted to the state minimum distance for bussing, “then if I remember correctly, virtually all if not all of the high school students are ineligible for bussing,” Bierwirth said. “That means we could then move the start time at the high school without any additional busses.”

Students who require a bus for physical reasons would still receive service and are not subject to the mileage limit. A little over 100 high school students ride the busses each day.

Assistant superintendent of business Helen Constigan stated that the district returned $1.2 million to taxpayers in 2011-12 as part of the fund balance, and is projecting the same amount in 2012-13. Due to the mild winter, any additional moneys in the fuel budget would go into the fund balance at the end of the year. The district has saved a significant amount of money by switching from oil to natural gas several years ago.

The superintendent said it was his belief that the recommendation would be to use the reserves fund the certiorari fund balance this summer by about $350,000-$450,000. The amount for the certioraris is not budgeted. These settlements occur when residents and businesses challenge their tax bill and assessments and the county makes adjustments for their mistakes and people are reimbursed for paying an excess amount of tax. Previously the county would make up the difference for the schools since it controlled the assessing, yet after the repeal, school districts would have to fund and pay the county back for any moneys they reimburse on their behalf. “If we can’t fund the reserves, then we’re going to have to cut funding into the budget,” Constigan said.

Trustee James Gounaris stated that it was one of his goals to put an individual chairperson in charge of each department. “My goal is to try to find a way – it may not be able to be in this year’s budget, but the problem that we face is... we’re going to do something that may strain, really put a strain on how we’re going to educate our kids in the Herricks tradition,” he said.

The district has eliminated its chairs for math, English and science in this budget.

Bierwirth said that as part of a spring conference, the board can examine the next three to 4 years regarding what it can afford going forward in terms of program.

“We’ve never been this low,” trustee Peter Grisafi said, adding that to keep programs at the levels they are, an increase in levy above the cap limit would have to pass. In order to override the levy cap, a supermajority of 60 percent or more is required by voters.

“At the beginning I think maybe you can get away with some of this but as you move forward I think things are going to start to crumble because you’re not going to have the person that’s going to be the leader for that discipline,” board president Christine Turner said. “You’re not going to start to miss it until you start to see it when it’s not there.”