Schools

BOE Approves Proposed School Budget

Proposed spending plans includes shift to eight period day at middle schools, two furlough days.

West Islip residents will head to the polls on Super Tuesday next month to vote on a proposed school budget that is within the tax cap but also includes a significant change for middle school students.

On Wednesday night, board of education trustees unanimously approved the proposed $114.7 million spending plan for the 2013-14 school year, which includes a 3.75 percent tax increase. If approved by voters, the budget would cost homeowners an additional $288 next year based on a home assessed at $45,000.

At the start of the budget formation process in February, the school district faced a nearly $2 million budget gap, driven in large part by an increase in pension costs, rise in contractual obligations and rising health care costs. In order to get the proposed budget to the tax cap, the board of education approved several program cuts and changes.

Perhaps the biggest will be seen in September at the school district’s two middle schools. Students will shift to an eight period day from a nine period day, which gives the school district a cost savings of approximately $600,000 by eliminating a handful of teaching positions.

In addition, the school district will also implement two furlough days in the coming school year, which will provide an additional savings of $544,000. Several other smaller cuts were made that allowed the school district to close its budget gap.

The tight financial constraints the school district is facing did not allow for the hiring of two elementary library medial specialists, as was requested by Superintendent Richard Simon.

Also, the district was unable to fund additional teachers at select elementary grade levels where the average student population for the coming school year worried some parents.

As previously reported, the average class size in fourth grade at Paul J. Bellew will be 26.25 students, while the fifth grade average will be 26.6 students. Bayview’s fifth grade average class size will be 25.3 students and Manetuck’s fourth grade class size will average 25 students.

To lower the average class size numbers in each of these grade levels, the school district would have had to add four sections, which would have added $320,000 to the 2013-14 school budget.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here