Only Minor Changes Made to West Hempstead Budget

The West Hempstead school board, administration and residents settled in for Round Two of their workshops on the 2012-2013 budget, moving on from non-instructional items to instructional ones.

There were no major changes made to the proposed draft budget since it was first presented at , where Superintendent John Hogan explained that the current version maintained all programs, staff and class sizes.

"It is still a work in progress until it is adopted by the Board of Education on April 17," Hogan said at the March 13 meeting.

Among the few modifications that were made included a roughly $8,000 reduction in the amount of money appropriated for equipment and professional meetings for the school board members. The numbers were adjusted based on new vendor quotes.

However, the curriculum budget increased to reflect changes in curriculum projects and support the renewal of district curricula and the integration of the state's Common Core Standards. 

Other changes included the reduction of one High School Guidance Counselor, whose position had been funded through the expiring Education Funds Job Grant. School officials explained that the reason for this reduction is that the High School's enrollment has decreased by over 200 students since 2005-06. There will now be three full-time counselors to serve a student body of 800.

There will be an increase of $82,101 for 'BOCES Warehousing' due to increased utilization of the data storage service tied to additional student assessments and implementation of the Annual Professional Performance Review regulations for faculty members.

The latest version of the budget does restore EBALR (Employee Benefits Accrued Liability Reserve) to $250,000. (The reserve has been reduced by over $850,000 since July 1, 2008 in order to support previous school budgets. Current reserve level supports 23.3 percent of audited liability.)

"When looking at a proposed budget, you are seeing a byproduct of prudent budgeting and difficult choices over the course of the past three budget cycles," said Superintendent Hogan. "This proposed budget reflects the reduction of staff, programs and services in the past three years in response to the economic challenges we are facing."

He also said that the proposed budget reflects contract resolutions on the part of the district and its labor units, adding, "That made good economic sense and helped ensure that the district could continue to move forward."

A Cross Contract with Eastern Suffolk BOCES was scheduled to be voted on by the Board at Tuesday's meeting but was postponed to a meeting in April.

The next budget workshop will be held on March 27. Stay with Patch for more developments pertaining to the West Hempstead school budget. You can view the latest version and the March 13 presentation above (in the PDFs section) or by visiting the district's Web site.