Budget Season, New Standards Top Concerns for Merrick Board

The new Common Core Curriculum and continuing budget concerns were the two major issues that the Merrick Board of Education discussed at Tuesday's meeting.

Not waiting until budget season to be watching expenses, board member Butch Yamali questioned expenses line by line, including payments to Aqua, Verizon and LIPA for all three schools.

Yamali's questioning prompted Dr. Christine Grucci, assistant superintendent for business and technology, to agree to audit some of the expenses for the upcoming budget season.

Board member Sheri Iskenderian also had budget on the top of her mind, but it wasn't just the 2012-13 budget, but the budget for the next three years out.

"I think that we should develop a strategic plan looking forward to the next three years. We have to make constructive decisions now," she said.

School districts will be facing a 2-percent tax cap and will have to face adjustments when it comes to making and creating a budget and Iskenderian expressed that knowing "how many miles to empty" will help the district face the hard decisions in the future.

Although budget season is going to be hard, there are new initatives coming into the school district that will also be a challenge. Assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and pupil services, Lisa Ruiz, did a presentation about the new Common Core Curriculum which will be completely rolled out for the 2012-13 school year.

"This is new core academic skills in language arts and math that will really raise the bar for or students and they are aligned with college and work expectations," she said.

The new curriculum will include six shifts in each grade level and will include very specific fluency benchmarks, she said.

The district has already started working with the new learning system, Ruiz explained, implementing two Common Core aligned units each semester.

"We have a lot of work to do and are already underway," Ruiz added.