Editor's Note: This article was written by Chris Boyle.
The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District (CHSD) presented a work-in-progress version of their budget for the upcoming school year.
Deputy Superintendent Cynthia Strait Regal gave a presentation of the CHSD’s current draft of their 2013-14 proposed budget and cited several financial hurdles that the District will have to overcome next year, including a new state-mandated two percent tax cap as well as cuts to state funding.
“In 1992-93, the State aid we received was in the amount of $11,780,051, which made up 20.4 percent of our budget,” Strait Regal said. “In 2013-14, the State is now providing less than 13 percent of our budget. Obviously, because of that, our taxes had to increase.”
As it currently stands, the CHSD 2013-14 budget clocks in at $135,676,043, which is a 2.12 percent increase over the 2012-13 budget of $132,863,246. As of now, the Tax Levy for next year is estimated to be 3.49 percent, but that is subject to change based on further tweaking during the budget creation process.
Another difficulty facing the district that was cited by Regal was annual student enrollment. Year by year, she said, it has been steadily decreasing, and those dwindling numbers have necessitated cuts to both programs and staff.
“We’ve experienced quite a decrease in the number of students,” she said. “In 2007-08, we had 6,165 students. We now anticipate next year we’ll have 5,700 students. This year we had just under 5,900.”
Among the proposed cuts is the removal of summer school for all grades except current seniors, one administrative position and two clerical positions, one Junior Varsity game per sport per season (except for football), one less assistant coach due to low participation and several other cost-saving measures. In addition, some slack is being taken up by using a significant amount of the District’s reserve savings, Regal said.
The 2013-14 budget is scheduled to be adopted on April 3. The public budget vote will be held on May 21.
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