Trustees Get Ready to Tackle Budget
In what is widely viewed by school districts across the state as a very difficult budget cycle, Huntington School District executives are working on crafting a draft plan to fund operations in 2011/12.
Once the budget draft is completed it will be sent to Huntington School Board members who will then hold a series of meetings to review each of the spending areas.
Like districts across New York, if not the country, Huntington is faced with dramatic increases in health insurance and employee retirement costs while simultaneously losing millions of dollars in federal stimulus funding.
School officials are also bracing for a possible loss of state aid as New York grapples with a nearly $10 billion deficit. Another dark cloud on the horizon is a worry that the district's assessed valuation will continue to trend lower, forcing upward pressure on property tax rates.
Trustees and administrators have also been discussing what they believe is a real possibility that the state will enact a property tax cap limiting any tax increase to two percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. To meet such a target will require spending reductions of more than $5 million dollars, according to officials.
"We are taking a look at everything," Superintendent John J. Finello said. "We understand that substantial cuts will need to be made. These cuts will be painful and will require us to make changes and do some things differently. These are tough times."
After receiving the draft plan, trustees will make decisions during five public meetings, culminating on April 11 when the Huntington School Board will adopt a budget and send it to residents for an up-and-down vote on Tuesday, May 17.
Trustees will review each line of the budget at a series of budget meetings. Each of the sessions will begin at 7:30 p.m. and be held in the Jack Abrams School auditorium on Lowndes Avenue in Huntington Station. The public is welcome to attend and will be given two opportunities to address trustees.
"Naturally we hope to preserve as much of our outstanding educational and co-curricular program as possible," Mr. Finello said. "The plan we develop is one that ultimately must be able to garner the support of the community. We are keeping that in mind as we move along."
The upcoming meetings will focus on specific budget topics consistent with the following schedule:
March 7
- General overview of the budget process to date;
- Function areas dealing with central administration and general support;
- Debt service and inter-fund transfers;
- Capital projects.
March 14
- Curiculum and instruction;
- Special education and pupil personnel;
- Co-curricular activities and interscholastic athletics.
- March 28
- Staffing;
- Transportation;
- Employee benefits.
April 4
- General discussion as needed on various topics.
April 11
- Revenues;
- Recap of the budget;
- Budget adoption by trustees
Once it is released, a copy of the draft budget will be posted on the district's website at www.hufsd.edu and will also be available in the district's business office and in each of the seven school buildings.