Merrick school board passes 2011-12 budget

The Merrick Board of Education adopted the school district’s 2011-12 budget at its April 12 meeting.

The proposed $42.3 million spending plan includes a 3.31 percent increase in expenditures over the 2010-11 budget.

“This is one of the lowest budget-to-budget increases that we’ve had in several years,” said Superintendent Dr. Ranier Melucci.

Facing a $600,000 state aid cut, the board was able to adopt the budget without eliminating programs, reducing staff or increasing class size.

"It's a credit to the board and to the building administrators and the central office administrators that we're able keep that budget increase as low as 3.31 percent,” said Melucci. “We certainly would like to make it even lower, but we've been able to do that without cutting programs.”

All Merrick schools will continue with their current educational programs, including foreign language in grades three to six, early intervention reading services, full-day kindergarten and technology-based instructional programs.

“That was always the goal of the board of education and the administration –– not to cut programs for kids, not to raise class sizes, and to maintain the kind of excellence that you've come to expect from Merrick,” Melucci said.

Board Trustee Sheri Iskenderian said that she called the office of New York State Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr., a Republican from Merrick, to discuss the possibility of consolidating the Merrick and North Merrick school districts, as the state provides grants and incentives to districts that consolidate.

But Iskenderian said the districts did not meet the state’s criteria for consolidation, and that there would be zero to minimal financial benefit to consolidating right now. Board members said they would continue to study the possibility of consolidation in the future.

The budget will be presented to the public in May, and the vote will take place on Tuesday, May 17, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Levy-Lakeside Elementary School at the end of Babylon Road, just south of Merrick Road. To vote, one must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen and a district resident for at least 30 days prior to the vote.

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