Mineola School Board Unveils Latest Budget Draft

For the fourth year in a row, the Mineola School District is shopping a tax levy increase under 2.5 percent.

Unveiled at Wednesday’s meeting of the board of education at the , the second 2011-12 budget draft totals $84,021,638, about $3.8 million more than 2010-11 of $80,128,573, or a 4.86 percent increase in spending.

Superintendent of Finance Jack Waters reminded the audience that the recently passed by the state senate does not apply to district spending, only to the tax levy, or what the district will ask the community to contribute.

Key to understanding the budget is a $2,625,211 transfer to a capital line for the . Without the $2.6 million for included, the adjusted budget would be about $81.4 million, a $1.26 million increase, or 1.58 percent. The $2.6 million amount is comprised of $2.129 for Hampton, paid out of the designated fund balance and $495,561 for the , paid through the tax levy.

The district currently has $4.2 million in its fund balance, or savings account, which is $1 million above the 4 percent cap on fund balances allowed by state law.

“We knew we would be spending money this year as we went to close schools,” Waters said, saying the extra money would help pay for the Hampton project.

“This will be our last opportunity to right-size these buildings before some kind of cap comes in,” Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler said, explaining the district was trying to “expedite” the project by .

Last month the board gave a . Waters said the $1.8 million change was reflected by the additional transfer to capital, as well as an additional retiree to the number of staff excessed ahead of the district reconfiguration.

“That reduction in salaries offsets a bit of the transfer to capital line,” Waters said.

The district expects $5.08 million in state aid this year, specifically $4.8 million and additional money in education jobs fund aid, which was deferred to this year from last year. NEXTEL aid will total $846,780, and the district expects to take in $1.12 million in other revenue, including , for a total of $7.04 million. This amount, when combined with the savings account, brings the total tax levy down to $74,846,981, a 2.44 percent increase over the 2010-11 amount of $73,064,013.

“We have made great efforts to make sure over the last couple of years that we try to provide the taxpayers with a tax levy of 2.5 percent or less and this year we’ll be able to provide the same tax levy that we’ve talked about for years,” Waters said.

The difference between the proposed budget and a contingency budget would only be $2,591,933.

To arrive at the contingent budget figure, debt and leases ($3.29 million) are subtraced from the current budget of $80.12 million – “principally our busses,” Waters said – which equals $76.83 million. Multiplying that number by the consumer price index (1.92 percent), equals $78.3 million. Then add the $3.12 million of debt and leases back into the budget to equal the contingent budget of $81,429,705.

The $2.5 million in proposed cuts would be $495,561 from , the entire $2.1 million from the Hampton project and $140,157 from equipment. The Hampton project would still move forward as the money will simply be transferred to another reserve fund dedicated to capital projects before June 30 and a public vote will have to be held in either summer or early fall to approve the project.

“It will be out of the budget for purposes of determining what the budget will be and what the tax levy will be,” Waters said, noting that the total amount of cuts would be more than required, leaving $173,435 in excess.

“This is the last year we expect to go to a contingent budget,” Nagler said. “You’re well below what you have to go to, which isn’t a bad thing, but next year in the wake of a 2 percent cap, if that money were still in the budget, we’d be that better off next year.”

In the proposed 2011-12 budget, total salaries will decrease by $300,000 from $47.9 million to $47.6 million, while benefits including health and pension costs will rise by $2.3 million from $16.5 million to $18.8 million.

“From a tax levy standpoint that’s over 3 percent of a tax levy by itself is the increase,” Waters said.

Salaries account for $47.9 million of the 2010-11 budget, and Waters said that “typically” the district will see an annual increase at 4 percent, which would total an estimated $49.8 million. Instead Mineola budgeted $47.6 million, a $2.2 million difference made possible by the reconfiguration and reducing 15.2 full time positions. The excesses includes one administrator, one head custodian and clerical retirements.

Nagler emphasized that this was the fourth year in a row where the district had come in with a levy under 2.5 percent and no cuts in program. “We said when we started this whole thing of closing schools, we can get 5 years of 2.5 percent levy and we’re completely on track to do that,” he said.

“By and large, we’re always going to generate four to 5 percent increase,” Nagler said. “When you’re forced to do a 2 percent cap, something has to give; the only thing that gives in school districts is personnel.”

Dr. Nagler also addressed the possibility of undoing all of the reconfiguration if there were to be a change in the board majority following the annual May election. The seats held by Board President Terence Hale and Trustee William Hornberger are up for election this year.

“Whether or not the budget passes,” Nagler said, the district would have to hire back 12 of the 15 excessed teachers based on his “assumption” that only one building would be closed and the fifth and eighth graders would .

“If you do that, can you do it? Yes. With 12 less teachers it will be ugly,” the superintendent said. “Your class sizes will spike, you will absolutely lose program. You cannot hire the people back, its not in the budget, you have no way of putting it in the budget.”