West Hempstead’s nearly $78 million budget will go to residents for approval next month, after the board adopted the spending plan Tuesday night (April 16) by a vote of 6-1.
Trustee Burt Blass was the lone dissenter, saying the board needed to rein in spending and streamline expenses to prepare for hard times ahead.
Members of the audience who support passing the budget, including the vice president of the teacher’s union, Robyn Wagner, implored Blass to reconsider his support. “Please walk the hallways of our school,” said Wagner, who is a kindergarten teacher. “The children are being their best selves because of the support the teachers are providing.”
Blass said “My concern is I would like to see us have a good school district here for many years to come. In order to get there, we can’t every year plan to utilize reserves to cover planned expenditures.”
Blass said the schools should do what families regularly do to ensure that expenses match income. “I’m doing it for the students of this district. I want to see that the district goes on forever and ever.”
The budget raises spending from $74,125,176 to $77,899,290, an increase of just over 5%. Assistant Superintendent Brian Phillips in his presentation said the 3.34% increase in the tax levy is midrange for Nassau County school districts. Nassau County caps the tax levy at $50,647,344.
Aid from Albany, while still tentative for lack of a final budget, is likely to increase by just 2.16%. Phillips said if the final budget includes less aid than projected after the school budget is passed, “We’ll have to make it work.”
The budget includes use of reserves and fund balance in the amount of $5,270,000. State law caps such spending at 4% of the budget.
In a prior meeting on the budget Blass said that he did not have any suggestions on where to cut spending. “That’s not my job,” Blass told Echo following the vote. “I’m not an educator. But that doesn’t make my opinion any less relevant.”
Superintendent Dan Rehman said aging infrastructure in the school buildings made reserve funding for contingency repairs essential and said keeping those reserves was “Standard operating procedure. We are not hiding money.” He said increasing the levy would avoid depleting the reserves.
The district is facing numerous cost increases beyond its control, particularly transportation, employee benefits and special education. The budget raises spending for transportation nearly 17%, and benefits nearly 7%.
There will be an open discussion on the budget on May 7th at West Hempstead High School, followed by the open vote on the 21st, from 7 am to 9 P.M. at the Secondary School North Gym.
