Hewlett-Woodmere plans a $119.79 million budget

A smattering of parents, Hewlett-Woodmere School District administrators, trustees and even students attending for a class, were all seated at tables during the annual budget forum in the Woodmere Education Center on March 27.

“The state of New York in their infinite wisdom requires boards of education to set a budget, but they require that we hold a public budget meeting after the date that we set the budget …” said Board of Education President McInnes. “So what we’ve done for a while is that we’ve created this public budget forum so that we can get input from the community and actually hear what people have to say.”

Louis Frontario, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, walked the audience through the proposed budget. A rollover budget would have created a 3.89 spending increase to $120.98 million, he said. With a few revisions, including the elimination of three teaching positions to match a decline of enrollment at the Franklin Early Childhood Center, the proposed spending increase is 2.86 percent, and the preliminary fiscal plan stands at $119.79 million. The previous two budgets passed by the district had no increase in the tax levy –– the amount of money collected through property taxes –– in part because of money saved through the capital reserve fund. This year the potential levy matches the budget increase at 2.86 percent. With the state budget approved, the district’s state aid is expected to be $9.698 million, an increase of $981,237.

“All our programs, everything you know and love about Hewlett-Woodmere will remain intact in the 2018-2019 budget, with some enhancements,” Frontario said.

Two of the more expensive potential additions are a teacher for “level literacy intervention,” to help students who have had difficulty at Woodmere Middle School catch up before high school, and a full-time custodian. McInnes said he believes “with the amount of work they have to do in the high school, they’ll never catch up.”

The reading instructor adds $145,299 to the budget, and the new custodian, $91,027. Frontario said the costs will be offset by the elimination of the teachers and a reduction in custodial overtime pay.

McInnes and Frontario took questions from the audience, many of which focused on the slight decline in enrollment at the Childhood Center last year. McInnes later said it had risen some this school year.

“With rising taxes young families are moving out,” said Maia Krasnopolsky, of Woodmere. “Just in my little neighborhood three families over the last three or four months have moved out. My next-door neighbors, who moved in a little over two years ago just put up a for sale sign, and I asked them today why, rising taxes. And their kids were going to enroll in Franklin.”

“We understand that the taxes are high,” McInnes said. “There’s not a lot that we can do besides slash and burn to cinders that’s going to have a discernable impact on what the total tax base is. It’s $500,000 or so for us to get a half a percent reduction in what the levy is … If we wanted to take a three percent down on your taxes, we’d have to cut $3 million from the programs and teachers and stuff.”

A proposed budget will be adopted on April 17. The public vote is May 15. The school budget, the library budget, expenditures from the reserve fund, three district trustees and one library trustee are on the ballot. Jonathan Altus, Melissa Gates and Stephen B. Witt are up for re-election for the Board of Education, and Ayanna Lane is running again for the library board. Candidate petitions are due April 16.