Cuts, Increases and Costs: An Overview of Malverne, West Hempstead School Budgets

Residents in both the Malverne and West Hempstead school districts will see their school taxes go up next year if they vote through the budgets adopted recently by their boards of education.

Budget-to-Budget Increases

On May 17, homeowners in Malverne will decide whether to accept the 3.26 percent budget-to-budget increase proposed for the 2011-2012 school year, which equates to a 4.96 percent rise in the tax levy. This translates to an additional $118 for the year for the average Malverne homeowner but how some will pay more, some less. Each taxpayers' contributions to the tax levy portion of the $47,512,111 budget will vary based on the value of their house. 

The same applies to residents of the West Hempstead school district, where the proposed budget for 2011-2012 came in 2.85 percent higher than last year. (They originally voted down the 2010-2011 budget but eventually supported a 0.54 percent budget-to-budget increase.)

If West Hempstead residents approve the proposed budget for 2011-2012, they'll see the tax levy rise by 2.99 percent, which is actually lower than the increase of 4.91 percent they were hit with between 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.

What will all this mean to the students and staff in the school districts?

Staff Layoffs

Malverne is planning to cut 44 full-time equivalent positions including 12 certified teaching jobs in Kindergarten through Grade 12, two teaching assistant positions and two administrators. West Hempstead cut 13.6 full-time equivalent positions were cut from the budget, although the district was able to use federal job fund monies to save 3.3 positions just for the upcoming school year.)

Program Cuts

While both districts managed to keep all classes, services and extracurriculars in tact for the upcoming school year - albeit some will have to make due with less - summer school was placed on the chopping block. 

In the final hour, West Hempstead administrators added the $80,000 program back in after receiving some backlash from parents, while Malverne made a last-minute decision to cut its $98,000 secondary summer school program.

Districts are not mandated to offer summer school. While Malverne's elementary summer school program survived by taking a reduction of nearly $2,000, parents who choose to send their secondary education students for summer instruction would have to pay another district that still offers the program.

Malverne also reduced funding for Saturday detention and twilight school instruction, and slashed sports' budgets by $30,000, clubs by 15 percent.

Cost Drivers

The biggest expenses for both districts stem from personnel. Employee salaries and benefits, including the districts' contributions to health insurance and retirement funds, rose significantly. For the 2011-2012 school year, Malverne is expecting to pay over $1.3 million for staff benefits.

West Hempstead's share of contributions to pensions for teachers rose 12.79 percent (or $251,252) to $2,215,154 and 11.23 percent (or $64,581) for non-teachers to $639,581.The district also added $190,000 to its budget line for unemployment insurance and saw health insurance for all its staff jump up 13.14 percent to $6,698,851 based on estimates for 2012.

West Hempstead Superintendent John Hogan once again took a pay freeze, staying at $210,000, as did Malverne Superintendent James Hunderfund, holding the line at $235,238.

Although both Malverne and West Hempstead have yet to reach agreements with their teachers unions, under the Triborough Amendment  eligible employees are still entitled to receive step raises.

The 2011-2012 budget for West Hempstead shows an increase of $90,105  for Kindergarten instruction and an extra $70,496 for Grades 1 through 5. Through layoffs though the district was able to lower the cost of instructors at the Middle School and High School by $166,391 and $610,501 respectively.

Malverne's budget includes salary increases for both instructional and non-instructional jobs climbed by a total of approximately $650,000. On the flip side, over 100 budget lines for the district where either reduced or subjected to a zero increase. 

Working With Less

Both districts also trimmed down their budgets for purchasing supplies, replacing textbooks and performing maintenance. Malverne will proceed with its plans to renovate the elementary school and sports fields that were included in the bond residents approved in the fall, but are still awaiting the money. Meanwhile, West Hempstead will tap into EXCEL funds to perform much-needed masonry work at the high school and middle school, assuming residents pass the budget.

That said with only a few exceptions, the district is putting off most of its repair work, including the replacement of its aging boilers and Malverne is budgeting very tightly, perhaps putting themselves in a sticky situation should a major maintenance problem emerge.

Added Pressures

Like school districts across Long Island, Malverne and West Hempstead had a tough time constructing the 2011-2012 budgets as they struggled under the weight of unfunded mandates, escalating expenses and additional costs pushed on them from state and local governments. Meanwhile, they dealt with cuts in aid, the loss of recovery funds and other drops in revenue.

Budget By the Numbers

Here's a quick recap of the adopted budgets for both Malverne and West Hempstead. (For the full line-by-line budgets see the attached documents located at the top right of this article.)

Total: 44 full-Time equivalent** positions (Includes 12 Certified K-12 teachers, two teaching assistants, two administrators, two custodians, two security guards, three clerical staff and 12 non-certified monitors.)

*Translates to an increase of $118 for average Malverne school district homeowners. 

**The figure does not reflect the number of employees who will retire or go on leave.

Total: 13.6 full-time equivalent positions

(While a total of 13.6 positions were cut from the budget, the district was able to use federal job fund monies to save 3.3 positions for the 2011-2012 school year.)

Speak Up

Patch wants to hear your thoughts on the proposed school budget for your district. Whether you're a parent of public or private school student or a senior citizen or young resident struggling to stay here because of school taxes, we want to hear from you.

You're always welcome to leave your comments on this article or you can email Tara.Conry@Patch.com to submit an opinion piece. 

Budget Vote - May 17

Malverne: 7 a.m. to 9 pm at Howard T. Herber Middle School

West Hempstead: 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at West Hempstead Middle School