Superintendent outlines proposed budget for N.S. schools

District parents gathered in North Shore High School’s library last Thursday to hear Superintendent Dr. Peter Giarrizzo’s initial budget presentation for the 2018-2019 school year.

He began the presentation by outlining certain goals of the budget, as well as the budget building process. “We intend to fund the schools in ways that advance our core mission while remaining sensitive to the fiscal pressures faced by residents of the North Shore community,” Giarrizzo said.

While drafting the budget proposal, Giarrizzo and Assistant Superintendent of Business Olivia Buatsi reviewed actual expenditures from the past five years, prior budgets to ensure requested programs and items were implemented, and new staffing requests to make certain the district’s goals were met. Additionally, as of Feb. 8, Giarrizzo had eliminated almost $2.1 million from the proposal, which represents initial budget cuts.

He added that there are a number of unknown projections at budget formulation time that would ultimately affect the finalized budget, such as state aid, health insurance costs, student enrollment, and course selection.

“Tonight we are going to review the ins and outs of the proposed budget, and look at certain line items,” Giarrizzo said. “If the board would like to make any adds or deletions, they’ll be reflected at the next meeting.”

The budget’s expenditures were outlined, which reflected a 2.7 percent budget-to-budget increase from the previous year. The budget drivers, which include litigation, supervision of instruction, and regular instruction, increased by $3.3 million. “This represents a higher increase than what we’re asking for,” Giarrizzo said.

Although the presentation reflected almost $450,000 in staffing cuts, Giarrizzo said that there are contingency measures built into the proposed budget. “We have the resources to support additional sections if enrollment spikes,” he said.

The district’s revenues, totaling $86 million, will come from a handful of sources, such as split property payments, PILOTS, state aid, the district’s fund balance —including allocations from the Marcellino/Lavine grant — and the tax levy, which increased by 1.89 percent from the 2017-2018 school year.

Giarrizzo said that the district plans to allocate the remaining funds from the Marcellino/Lavine grant and North Shore’s tax certiorari reserves using the “melting ice approach” in order to maintain the fiscal sources for an extended period of time.

The board then reviewed certain lines of the proposed budget, including Board of Education and central administration, services, facilities and operations, and transportation.

During the presentation, Giarrizzo had mentioned the budget reflected class consolidation, which concerned Trustee David Ludmar. “I’m concerned we’re under-predicting what’s happening in our schools,” he said. “Preserving small classes at a young age, especially in kindergarten, is of the utmost importance.”

Trustee Sara Jones commended the superintendent for providing “thoughts behind the numbers,” but asked that the revised budget include a “comprehensive set of revenue projections.”

She also recommended that for future budget formulations, the board discuss revenues earlier in the process. “It feels too late to have substantial conversations about reserves until two weeks before the final budget proposal,” Jones said.

Trustees then heard comments from the public.

Rob Mazzella, of Glen Head, asked that instead of listing the actual expenditures from the ’17-’18 school year in the budget, the book should reflect estimated actual expenditures to provide “a better base of comparison” from year to year.

Glen Head resident Lawrence Ruisi said that many members of the district look at the budget as an expense, and that the board should formulate it in such a way so that it is viewed as an investment.

The next budget discussion will be held on March 1 in the high school library at 7:30 p.m. The board will review the line items including instruction, technology, community services, athletics, special education, guidance and staffing.