School Board Notebook - Aug. 12, 2010

The Mineola school board held a meeting on August 12.  Take a look at what you missed.

2010-11 tax levy:

• The Board formally adopted the 2010-11 tax levy which will be $73,064,013, a year-over-year increase of 1.22 percent.
• The tax levy, or what the District will ask the community to contribute, is the total school budget minus any State Aid the district receives.
• The 2009-10 tax levy was $71,279,241 a year over year increase of 2.5 percent.  The total budget for the 2001-11 school year is $80,128,573, a 1.1 percent increase over the 2009-10 budget of $79,239,241.
• The tax rate is computed by taking the percentage of the tax levy for homeowners (94.23%), dividing by the assessed value (which is .25%) and multiplying by 100. The homeowner then pays the tax rate multiplied by the assessed value of their home (less STAR) divided by 100.
• Homeowners may also visit www.mynassauproperty.com, clicking on "property search" and entering their home address to view their taxes.

Refinancing debt:

• The Board authorized the purchase of refunding bonds for the $15.8 million serial bonds issued in 2002 used for the construction of the Willis Avenue School. Voters approved the initial bond for the construction of the school in 2000.
• New York State law allows school boards to refinance such outstanding bonds after a period of 10 years by issuing new ones. The current outstanding principal amount is $12.14 million.
• "There's a possibility that we may get a better rate," said Superintendent Michael Nagler, "and save a substantial amount of money if we're able to refund it at a favorable interest rate."
• The savings are dependent on the current market rates available after a request for proposal is sent out to various financial institutions. "It may not be worth doing," Nagler said, "but we believe its worth the effort to try." The current interest rate on the eight outstanding serial bonds are four percent.

Lunch prices:

• The lunch price lists for the 2010-11 school year were adopted with no increases in the price for type-A lunches and breakfasts.
• The prices are as follows:
  • elementary lunch: $1.50
  • secondary level lunch: $1.75
  • elementary breakfast: $1.00
  • secondary breakfast: $1.30.

Personnel:

• A contract agreement with District supervisor of operations Andrew Cavanaugh was approved by the Board.
• The resignation of elementary school teacher Lindsay Spanhake was approved as was her reappointment to the position of math teacher at the Middle School with a salary of $63,246.
• EMT Brendon Kraayenbrink was named to the staff of the Summer 2010 Band Camp from Aug. 16-21, 2010 at a salary of $687.37.
• Michele Kerr was appointed to the position of leave replacement elementary teacher for Lisa Balogh-Richards at the Jackson Avenue School from September 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 at a salary of $87,282.
• This year the Board will begin negotiations with all of its unions.  Superintendent Nagler estimated that the negotiations would be completed "within a year."
• The Board approved the creation of the following positions:
  • combination of a .5 pre-K part-time position and a .5 special education part time position to create a new probationary position that is dual purpose pre-K and special education.
  • a .6 high school earth science teacher
  • a .5 universal pre-K teacher
  • a . nurse
  • a .5 middle school math teacher
  • a .5 English Language Arts (ELA) middle school teacher
  • a .5 reading teacher
  • a .5 A.I.S. position
  • a .5 bilingual liaison
  • a .5 pre-K teacher
  • a .6 Spanish teacher

Contracts:

• Special education contracts were approved with the Center for Developmental Disabilities and the William Floyd School District for the 2009-10 school year. Special education contracts were approved with United Cerebral Palsy Association and New York Therapy Placement Services for the 2010-11 school year.

Early retirement incentive:

• The Board approved an early retirement incentive issued by New York State.  The law is designed to offer an incentive to District employees who are getting close to retirement to induce them to retire several years early.
• The incentive also includes savings to the District in the form of vacancies for higher paid positions with the expectation that if they are filled, they would be filled with workers being paid on a lower scale. While the law contains two sections - part "A" and "B" - both of which are based on age and the number of years of service, the Board only passed part "A."
• Part "A" is aimed at employees who are 50 years old and have 10 years of service while part "B" is directed at employees who are 55 or older and have at least 25 years of service. Early retirement incentives were offered by New York State in the past - the most recent in 2002.
• Four resignations of District employees for the purposes of retirement were approved that night by the Board: Richard Figueiredo, Angela Glassman, Regina McWeeney and Laurice Byrd. The village of Mineola also approved the measure on August 4.

The next meeting of the Mineola board of education will be on Thursday, September 16 at 7:00 p.m. at the Willis Avenue School.