Lindy School Budget Cuts Loom as Some State Aid Restored

Adding to the drama surrounding a Lindenhurst school budget process already rife with tension and following a meeting on personnel last Wednesday that saw , state lawmakers announced an agreement Sunday on a $132.5 billion budget, which includes the restoration of $272 million in education funding.

But what that exactly means for Lindenhurst is somewhat unclear, though it may help to relieve a district already facing a loss Superintendent Richard Nathan puts at $3.1 million in federal and state aid.

“This is new territory for me, and what I expect to happen is the [Lindenhurst Board of Education] will make some difficult decisions,” the superintendent recently told Patch.

Meanwhile, when Patch spoke Friday with – New York state assemblyman, Lindenhurst native and former village administrator –ahead of the state legislature’s budget deal, Sweeney wasn’t too optimistic that the amount of aid restoration was going to help school districts like Lindenhurst.

“There is a small restoration of aid, not significant enough to make a difference in [local] school budgets. There’ll be some assistance, but it won’t be huge,” Sweeney said.

Indeed, state aid to school districts is still on sharp decline, with payouts to districts set to fall more than $1 billion next year. But Sweeney pointed out what the governor has maintained.

“Districts have $1.6 million in federal stimulus money that they should use – it has to be spent this year by law. And they have $5 million in reserves. The state will give them some small relief, but it’s not going to make up for the entire cut in the budget.”

Lindenhurst BOE President Ed Murphy, Jr. has a different view. At the start of each meeting of this year’s school budget process, he’s said the loss of state aid would significantly hurt Lindenhurst.

“And if reserves are depleted, it’ll lower our bond rating, and with the lower rating, there’ll be hundreds of thousands more in interest we’d have to pay as part of the money we’d have to borrow due to loss of state aid,” Murphy said.

There’s also the looming tax cap. Sweeney was confident it wouldn’t be part of the final budget deal announced today, but told Patch Friday it’s still being batted around in Albany.

“But it’s not part of the budget. That wasn’t possible with the timing to get the budget done. So it’s probably a post-budget issue,” he said.

If passed, then Lindenhurst may have some trouble, according to Nathan, who explained it’d be a two percent tax cap or consumer price index (CPI), whichever is less.

“For example, if a 1.92 percent CPI is in effect, the the tax levy couldn’t be higher than that. It would have to be less than two percent. If you go out with one higher than that, we’d have to have a supermajority of voters to vote yes to pass that. So if only 59 percent vote yes, the 41 percent who voted no would win,” Nathan said.

The other challenge?

“If you do go out with a budget higher than the CPI, the community has to vote on it, and normal majority wins. And you won’t be able to vote more than twice on that,” Nathan said.

Last year, he explained there were 30,198 eligible voters in Lindenhurst, and 4,609 turned out to vote, which was considered good.

“Of that, there were 2,648 yeses and 1,929 nos, which leaves 32 who voted on something else on the ballot,” he said.

For now, even if the tax cap is passed, a normal majority will pass the school budget for the 2011-12 school year. The 2012-13 budget would be affected.

But before the budget’s brought to a vote on May 17, the BOE will meet at the to finalize the budget.

The board will consider the that Nathan presented at the most recent school budget meeting centering on personnel last week. Here are some :

• Phase one is already in place with the closing of E.W. Bower Elementary School this year at a savings of $1.3 million. Additional phase one cuts related to declining enrollment, reconfiguring the sixth grade and eliminating the 10th grade of the Alternative Learning Center total $915,423.
• Phase two’s $566,651 in cuts involves eliminating several middle school and high school positions.
• Phase three’s $880,976 in cuts includes eliminating sixth and eighth grade computers, 11th and 12th grade of the ALC, and theater arts and industrial arts programs.
• Phase four’s $562,502 in cuts involves eliminating two ORION teachers and sixth grade world languages, fine arts dance and JROTC programs.
• Phase five – the elimination of full-day kindergarten – would save $1.4 million.

Also on the table, but not specifically noted as part of a phase, are cuts to the athletics program – in particular the elimination of JV2 and JV9 programs – and cutting new technology purchases and leases, Nathan said.