Schools

Malverne Taxpayers Give Input on School Budget

Malverne school district residents suggest ways to cut expenses and react to past budget increases.

implemented by New York State has placed some new pressures on the Malverne school district to create a budget that will provide for its students and win the approval of its taxpayers. That’s why for the first time ever, the district turned to its residents – those with and without children in the school – before the budget has been drafted and asked for their suggestions.

“What are your priorities? What would you like to see eliminated…or added to the budget?” Superintendent James Hunderfund told the small crowd of approximately 20 to 30 taxpayers gathered at the district’s first budget development forum Wednesday night.

“We’re hear to listen. At this time everything is open [for discussion]. We need as much input as necessary,” the district’s business administrator, Thomas McDaid, told the attendees who were scattered about the mostly empty auditorium at

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McDaid gave the residents a brief overview of the tax cap and the situation it has put the district in. After estimating the rollover budget, basically taking the costs of all the programs, services and staff the district currently has and factoring in projected increases, the 2012-2013 budget would be $2,409,077 higher than last year’s. (This “ballpark” number will most likely change after the final figures are calculated this spring.)

“The tax cap keeps changing everyday,” said McDaid, who is constantly in contact with Albany for direction, but the latest figures show that if the district stuck to the 2-percent cap they could only increase the budget by roughly $790,000, after exceptions. That means the district must cut the extra $1.6 million from the roll-over budget or if they keep some or all of the money in, they must get a “super majority,” (60 percent of voters) to override the cap. Considering Malverne’s budgets have historically passed with less than 55 percent approval, getting the support for an override would be a challenge.

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“My value is in the classroom. Everything else is secondary,” said one Lynbrook parent who has a Kindergartener in the district and works as an educator at another. She suggested administrators look into partnerships and grants to pay for materials and programs, and to save money by reducing the number of special education students it sends out of district, something that McDaid said Malverne has been doing.

Another resident proposed asking employees to contribute more to their health benefits as classroom instruction, including salaries, pensions and health care, account for 81 percent of the district’s expenses. However, McDaid said that Malverne’s teachers currently pay 20 percent of their health benefits – one of the highest rates among Long Island educators.

Laura Avvinti, president of Davison Avenue School’s PTA, suggested cutting down on paper, printing and postage costs by giving parents the option to receive notifications via email or the Web site instead. She also said the classrooms are kept so warm that she sends her child to school in a T-shirt in the winter and teachers have to open windows, suggesting the district could lower its energy bills by fixing the heating situation.

Avvinti was also willing to give up busing, something she considers a “luxury.”  In order to save educational services, extracurricular activities and teachers, she said, “I’d rather drive my child to school.”

Other suggestions voiced by residents included hiring an outside consultant to look for ways the district could save and taking advantage of those willing to dedicate their time to the schools as volunteers.

“What about fundraising? What about consolidating?” shouted one woman, a Malverne High School graduate who doesn’t have any children but has seen her taxes go up by $8,000 since she bought her house.

“Ninety-minutes from here [in Pennsylvania] the schools are so much better and they’re not asking for so much money,” said the woman, a Lynbrook resident who chose not to disclose her name. “Why is the only answer to every problem to raise taxes? You’re going to bankrupt the homeowners.”

Her sentiments were shared by another Lynbrook woman who resides in the Malverne school district, Chris Waters, a teacher in the SUNY system.

Although her expenses have gone up, Waters says, “Where I teach, we’re facing the same thing but they are not allowing us to ask for extra money and they are mandating we take five furloughs.”

Waters said she didn’t want to see students deprieved but given the times,  the district should not increase its budget at all and should require schools to fundraise for things like band uniforms, as was the practice when she was a student.

“I have to stick to my budget and other people have to stick to their budget,” she said. “It’s just the way it is.”

Malverne Village Trustee Michael Bailey also spoke up at the meeting, expressing his hope that the district’s officials are not simply relying on the residents to come up with suggestions but are researching “new ways to do things better.”

“This is just the starting point,” McDaid told the crowd. Stay tuned to learn about upcoming budget meetings and if you haven’t done so already, to take the district’s brief budget survey.


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