West Islip Schools Facing Deep State Aid Cuts

With the West Islip Board of Education set to begin public hearings on the school budget at the beginning of March, trustees this past week found out their task of forming a proposed budget to present to voters in May became somewhat more difficult.

As Gov. Andrew Cuomo made public his proposed statewide budget, it was revealed that West Islip could be facing a $3 million reduction in state aid. While local school district officials and board of education trustees were expecting a reduction, the amount of the proposed figure caught some by surprise.

“Although we knew the governor was going to propose a tax cut, I was a bit surprised by the amount when taken in totality with the governor's proposed tax cap and his silence on unfunded mandates,” said Steve Gellar, president of the board of education. “There are many components that go into the aid package and the district is still studying the data we've received to determine the full impact.”

While the governor and state legislature will begin negotiations on the state budget this month, school officials in West Islip again this year face another challenging task of developing a budget that keeps the tax rate manageable while dealing with rising costs and cuts in state aid.

The task this year is similar to 2010 when local school officials faced a $2.4 million reduction in state aid. Despite a 6.7 tax rate increase, residents easily approved the $104,104,887 budget for the current school year, which allowed the district to salvage nearly all programs and teachers. 

Gellar, however, said he’s not expecting that to be the case for the new budget.

“Like many districts on Long Island, West Islip is facing significant increases in expenses, some of which we have no control over, and significant decreases in revenue,” he said. “As is stands now, crafting a fiscally responsible and educationally sound budget will present a large challenge, which will likely require tremendous sacrifice.”

Superintendent Rick Simon, who is embarking on his first budget formation process as the chief administrator in West Islip, said the cuts in state aid would have profound implications for every school district on Long Island in terms of politics and reality of what kind of budget each district will be able to bring to the voters.

“It’s a bit frustrating because we want to continue the many programs, maintain the staff levels that we have so that we can deliver those programs,” he said. “But the reality is if there’s less dollars for the district to use, the one place districts have to go to is people, because that’s where most of the money is.”

Simon, a member of the Suffolk County School Superintendents' Association, said the group is working diligently with senate and assembly members to make the proposed tax cap less devastating for schools.

“We will continue to urge our representatives to address the fiscal challenges all schools face,” Simon said.  “As a district, we have been working on the 2011-12 budget for a number of months, exploring the various options to craft a proposed budget that will be fiscally responsible and maintain the integrity of our program.”

One issue school officials don’t have to deal with this year is the proposed 2 percent property tax cap that has been touted by Cuomo, a Democrat, and recently approved by the Republican controlled state senate.

If passed, Simon said the tax cap wouldn’t go into effect until the 2012-13 school year.  Even so, he said, the district is still facing sharp increases, specifically in retirement (almost $2 million more) and health insurance (just over $1 million more).

“We are looking closely at every budget item as well as class sizes, enrollment trends, and the administrative structure of the district,” Simon said.  “All of these issues and others will be discussed during the budget hearings that begin on March 1.”