Superintendent Katulak Describes NHP-GCP Budget

The Board of Education adopted a collaborative budget at the April 4, 2011, board meeting which will now go before the district voters on May 17, 2011.

The budget that was developed is the lowest budget-to-budget increase in well over seven years and is in response to numerous stakeholders who have provided input and feedback to the superintendent, administrators and the board of education since the January 3 budget input sessions. The budget proposal is a 2.97 percent increase which is lower than the 3.13 percent budget increase last year.  This budget was developed by making over $800,000 in reductions. These cuts were made to offset the impact of state imposed increases in retirement costs and health insurance, which are the driving forces of the proposed budget. As a matter of fact, if the state kept the rates flat, the budget that would have been voted on in May and would have been less than the current year’s budget.

Additionally, the state has also cut the amount of state aid that the district will receive by over $593,000. The reduction would have been greater but the legislature was able to negotiate for the reinstatement of some aid which resulted in our ability to lower the anticipated tax levy increase. It should be noted that if the state had kept the rates for the retirement and health systems flat, the district would have been able to reduce the tax levy for next year.

These are very difficult economic times. We worked diligently to arrive at this budget to keep almost all programs in place and to maintain employment of all staff members. This year, we expanded our reach to the public on our website, by sharing the questions and answers from the public regarding the budget. We have scheduled ten public presentations regarding the budget which we have also advertised on the website.

One important point for the public to understand is that our school district is not sitting on our reserves, as we will be applying over $1.2 million of fund balance and reserves, to offset taxes next year. Our students’ education must remain our number one priority in our community for future generations. Please check our website for the full budget presentation and the line-by-line budget descriptions. For additional facts and figures, a budget newsbriefs will be sent to your homes within the next few weeks.

is the superintedent of the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District.