Rockville Centre School District unveils 2015-16 budget

The Rockville Centre School District is proposing a budget for the 2015-16 school year that increases spending by more than $4.1 million.

The district administration offered a brief summary of the spending plan at the Board of Education work session on Feb. 4. It totals $107.2 million, up from the current budget of $103.1 million.

Most of the money would come from the tax levy, which, under the state tax cap, cannot increase more than 3.06 percent. Robert Bartels, the district’s assistant superintendent of business, said that the district would increasing the tax levy by only 2.99 percent, or about $2.65 million.

To help offset costs, the district is hoping to accrue about $1.46 million in new revenue. Most of that will come from an increase in the state-set tuition paid by nonresident students who attend special education programs in the district, as well as a projected increase of $950,000 in state aid.

“I was very conservative over the last couple of years on the projections because of different things,” Bartels told the Herald. “At this point, I feel comfortable enough to say we could get up to that amount of money to apply to this budget.”

He added that, given the amount of state aid the district has received in the past, it is likely to get the increase it needs to fill out the budget. Even if Gov. Andrew Cuomo were to freeze the rate of aid increase for next year — which Bartels called the “worst-case scenario” — the district would be likely to get the $950,000.

The major drivers of the budget increase, according to Bartels, are contractual increases to salaries and debt service payments, which are going up because of the $45.9 million School Improvement Bond that was passed in 2013.

The district’s health insurance costs will increase by $600,000, and it will budget an extra $250,000 for technology (spurred mainly by the decision to give every student at South Side High School an iPad next year) as well as $280,000 for new staffing.