Pearl River Schools Announce Retirements, Discuss 2012-13 Budget

Three long-time members of the clerical staffs in the Pearl River School District will be retiring this year.

The pending retirements of Alice Casey, Helen Brady and Rosemary O'Boyle were announced at the Pearl River Board of Education meeting Wednesday at the administrative offices on Crooked Hill Road. The full agenda and other information can be found attached to this report or on the district website. 

Casey has worked in the district for 23 years. Her retirement is effective April 13.

"Alice has been an integral asset to the high school for many, many years," Pearl River Superintendent Dr. John Morgano said. "When you see those awards presentations and the bouquet comes out, without her it will be hard to imagine how those get put together. She will be sorely missed at the high School."

Brady works in personnel and is retiring Aug. 31 after 26 years. Morgano worked closely with her when he was the district's assistant superintendent for eight years with personnel being a large part of his job.

"It is hard to imagine not having Helen in the personnel office," Morgano said. 
She will be sorely missed. She kept things cooking in that personnel office. She can call all the people in the state office of education that won't talk to me. She has connections that I don't know if anybody else in the state has."

"It's true. She has all the secret phone numbers," said Diana Musich, the district's new director of human resources and community services.

O'Boyle, who also worked in the middle school, has been greeting people as the secretary at Franklin Avenue Elementary School for many years.

"I want to say that working with Rosemary my first year has been so rewarding," said first-year Franklin Avenue Principal Maureen Alaimo. "She is the first face parents see, especially ones who are new to the district or the building. She is a remarkable woman who gives her all. She would do anything for Pearl River.

"I find her professional, very knowledgeable about the district and the school. She has been a wonderful asset to me this year. She has told me that she trained several principals. I am fortunate to be the last one."

Other Board Business:

• District Director of Operations Quinton Van Wynen explained that $42,000 of the $1 million settlement with Olympus would have to go to the Pearl River Public Library. The library was included in the PILOT agreement that Olympus Surgical & Industrial America Inc. violated when it left in 2009. 
• The board held a first reading for policies, including a new one regarding inventories and the capitalization of assets. 
• The board rescinded its approval of the high school varsity football team's trip to the KSA Events National Football Summer Tournament from July 21-25 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. as a bookkeeping matter. Van Wynen explained that because everything is handled by KSA Disney, the board does not need to approve the trip. 
• Students from Evans Park Elementary School presented their Reader's Theater activity. 

Budget Presentation No. 2

Van Wynen continued his presentations regarding the Pearl River School District Budget for 2012-13, which began at the Feb. 7 meeting. 

Wednesday's presentation focused on enrollment projections, debt service costs, salary and staffing, benefits, non-salary expenses and special education.

District Director of Special Services Carolyn Moffa gave the presentation on special education, explaining the various programs available. 

"Carolyn's budget will be approximately 2% higher than the current budget," Van Wynen said. "We anticipate six fewer students out of district, so that is six more here."

Van Wynen said that the next deadline the district is facing is March 1, when it must send in a form indicating what the tax levy will be. Though the state passed a law mandating a 2% cap on the tax levy increase, there are exceptions that will allow many school districts a larger percent.

"We are still awaiting final instructions," Van Wynen said. "It is looking like the allowable levy increase will go from 2% to 2.51%. We won't know for certain until next week, but it appears it will be 2.5%."

Morgan pointed out that the state has not made this well known, leaving the burden of telling taxpayers that the 2% tax cap is not concrete to the local districts and municipalities.

"They (the state) are not advertising this," Morgano said. "They are leaving it up to us to tell the public." 

Enrollment can also have an impact on the budget. Pearl River's enrollment for Kindergarten is going down again. The projected elementary school enrollment for the district in 2012-13 is 2,641, down from 2,732 in 2009-10.

"We are not losing a lot in any one year, but in total, it is 90 over the last four years," Van Wynen said. 

His projection had the district's three elementary schools with a total of 33 sections, down one class from 34 this year, in grades 1-4. Evans Park Elementary would have only two third-grade classes, down from three this year. 

The breakdown for Kindergarten classes is not available yet. 

The number of employees in the district has also gone down, with 21.9 positions dropped since the 2009-10 budget year, all through attrition rather than layoffs.

"We have maintained programs," Van Wynen said. "We've gotten an awful lot of things done. But we do have 22 people no longer on the payroll. As a result, our salaries only increased by $1 million."

The only contract that is currently up for negotiation is custodial. The contracts for nurses, administrators and ESOASA will be up in 2013, with clerical and teaching assistants in 2014 and teachers in 2015.

The bigger challenge is the growing expense of benefits, including money going into the Teacher Retirement System (TRS), Employee Retirement System (ERS), healthcare and workers compensation.

One a more positive end for the budget, Van Wynen said that the district could save $747,934 in the coming budget through debt service payments.

"That is very helpful in winning the battle of the 2% tax cap," Van Wynen said.

He said the district should consider the potential need to put money into capital requirements in the coming year.

There will be a third budget presentation at the board meeting March 6 which will include athletics, transportation, facilities and the tax levy.