Support Rockville Centre school budget, board candidates

On Tuesday, Rockville Centre School District residents will vote on the proposed 2011-12 school budget of $95.7 million, a 2.4 percent budget-to-budget increase, the second-lowest in 19 years. The Herald urges voters to approve the plan.

Residents have always shown strong support for local schools, and in the face of a slow and uneven recovery from the deep recession of the past few years, that support will be put to the test. We understand that the last thing district homeowners want is an increase in taxes, but we believe school officials kept this in mind as they crafted a plan that keeps expenses down while ensuring the high-quality education residents have come to expect.

The proposed budget, which was unanimously approved by the Board of Education, maintains all academic, athletic, arts and extracurricular programs, even as many districts have been forced to scale back in some or all of these categories. The only significant change in spending is the addition of one teacher to complete the implementation of the elementary foreign language program — fulfilling a pledge made by the board several years ago.

School officials say they are continuing to search for additional ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Each of the district’s bargaining units that recently renewed their contracts, including the teachers union, agreed to forgo a salary increase in at least one year of the contract. We would like to see district administrators make a similar sacrifice.

The ongoing conversion to natural gas in district buildings should save money for years to come. An energy performance contract, which should kick in during the upcoming school year after it is approved by the state, will increase energy efficiency in all buildings at no cost to taxpayers — a win-win.

As it did last year, this year’s budget utilizes some of the reserve and contingency funds the district typically maintains — measures that seem necessary now but could ultimately prove risky. And as it did last year, the district will again offer a retirement incentive to staff to keep personnel costs as flat as possible.