Rockville Centre School District working to balance 2018-19 budget

“Our budget is not balanced, and we still have a lot of work to do,” said Robert Bartels, assistant superintendent of business and personnel, at Rockville Centre’s Board of Education meeting on March 14.

Bartels unveiled the district’s proposed $117.8 million budget for the 2018-19 school year, a nearly 4.6 percent increase from last year’s spending plan. The tax levy, or amount that the district can collect from the district’s taxpayers, can increase by about 3.03 percent this year — despite the state’s 2 percent tax cap — when capital exemptions are considered.

Projected revenues only cover about $117 million, leaving an $800,000 gap that Bartels said would have to be made up.

The projected increase to the budget resulted in part from a $700,000, or 8 percent, increase on health insurance premiums, as well as staffing additions. An increase of $2.3 million is expected to go toward payroll increases, a category that makes up more than half the budget, and the district is spending $700,000 in the form of a capital transfer for security enhancements discussed at last month’s meeting.

The unbalanced budget comes despite a $500,000 increase in state aid and an extra $500,000 being added to the spending plan from reserve accounts.

“It becomes very frustrating when there’s large parts of the budget, like benefits, health insurance premiums … that we really don’t have any control over,” Bartels said.

A preliminary budget hearing will be held on April 17. “That is the absolute last time that we will have to make any changes to the budget before we get it ready to be voted on,” Bartels said, adding that a formal hearing, as required by the state will be held on May 2. As for that meeting, he said, “We can’t make any changes at that point.”