Island Trees Budget Recap: What You Need to Know

The Island Trees School District had big obstacles to overcome when forming the budget for the 2011-12 school year. The district will lose $1,303,338 in New York State aid and must also factor in mandated increases to New York State benefits of $1.6 million.

After months of discussion with Superintendent of Schools Charles Murphy and the school district community, the Island Trees Board of Education adopted a $57,315,640 budget and 2.99 percent tax levy. Tax levy is the total amount that a district must raise in property taxes in order to meet expenses, and 2.99 percent is less than neighboring school districts Levittown (3.43 percent), Seaford (8.99 percent), Wantagh (3.99 percent), Bethpage (3.41 percent) and Bellmore-Merrick (5.8 percent).

Savings will need to be made by reducing some co-curricular activities and staff salaries, but the proposed budget includes a new technology initiative and avoids making any reductions to secondary athletic programs while still keeping manageable class sizes.

Here are a few of the budget highlights.

• Teachers' schedules were reevaluated to maximize teaching time and classes were filled to what the district believes are the most efficient sizes. This led to a $525,999 savings in staff salaries.
• Elementary school class sizes for the 2011-12 school year will be: 21 for kindergarten, 22 for first, second and third grade, and 23-24 for fourth, fifth and sixth grade.
• Overtime will be minimized and a Tuesday to Saturday shift will be implemented to reduce weekend overtime. This will save the district $30,000.
• After reductions in staff last year, the district anticipated high unemployment insurance costs. However, most of the staff were able to find new employment, according to Murphy, and $218,374 will be saved.
• As more students are opting for the college-bound schedule, cuts have been made to BOCES Occupational Education at a savings of $20,691.
• Similar after school clubs will be offered, but they may run every other week instead of every week. These reductions in co-curricular activities saved the district $85,000. 
• No secondary athletics will be cut.
• Sparke and Stokes Elementary Schools and Island Trees High School will get new intercom systems.
• As part of a new technology initiative, the district's aging computers will be replaced by new ones that are more cost effective and energy efficient and can run new software that the old ones could not. Island Trees will receive 56 percent New York State aid on this project. 
• Some building projects were put off during these difficult economic times to save $99,000.
• The supply budget has been lowered throughout the district by 3 percent, saving $20,000.

There are four open seats on the Island Trees Board of Education for the upcoming term. They are listed here in the order they will appear on the ballot:

• Current Board of Education Vice President Ken Rochon will run against Gus Milonakis for seat one.
• Current Board member Robert Condela's term has ended and he will not be running again. Current Board member George Storm, Joseph Buda and Robert Vilbig will run for seat two.
• After Christine Holt resigned from the Board, George Storm was appointed to her seat. Now that Storm is running for seat two, Michael Kutzma, John Fontana and Daniel Donahue are running for seat three.
• Current Board of Education President Patricia Mahon is running against Brian Kelty for seat four.

The vote for the budget and Board of Education election will take place on May 17. The Island Trees Board of Education meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Karopczyc School.