Q&A

Q. If the budget passes, will we be able to maintain most things that we currently have?
A. Yes, if the budget passes, we will be able to maintain most things that we currently have including:

• No further cuts in staffing
• Class sizes at/around the Nassau County average
• Wide-range of electives & enrichment programs 
• Interscholastic athletics & extracurricular arts, clubs & activities 
  

Q. What does it mean if the budget does not pass?
A. The district will have to be on contingency, dismantling what has taken so long for us to build for our children. It would result in the following drastic cuts:

• Termination of up to 50 positions resulting in large increases in class sizes
• Reduction in school programs and electives
• Elimination of extracurricular activities including clubs, theatre, music, and interscholastic athletics

Please note:
The size of these cuts would be so large that it would be impossible to restore them for decades.

Q. How do these mandated costs affect our budget?
A. Mandated costs are increasing over $1.5 million this year mainly due to increases in our Pension/Retirement System Contributions ($834,000), MTA Tax ($187,000), Social Security ($226,672), and Special Education ($464,517).

Answering Your Questions
On May 18th, district residents will be asked to vote on the school budget. This is the amount of money needed to run our schools for the next year. We are committed to providing accurate information to everyone in our community. The following represents answers to the many questions asked by our residents. We encourage you to learn the facts and stay informed during this difficult budget season.

NY State & Federal Costs/Funding

Q. What does the 2010-2011 school budget include?
A. 36% of the budget includes mandated costs while 56% represents contractual obligations. The remaining 8% consists of items/programs that make the North Shore Schools unique (i.e., school-wide enrichment, electives, updated technology, and interscholastic/ extracurricular events, clubs and activities including athletics, the fine and performing arts, and community service.)

Q. What does the term “mandated costs” mean?
A. Costs dictated by the government such as Pension/Retirement System Contributions, Special Education, MTA Tax, Social Security, State Testing & Reporting, and Auditing & Financial Compliance. These costs must be paid whether the budget passes or not.

Q. How do these mandated costs affect our budget?
A. Mandated costs are increasing over $1.5 million this year mainly due to increases in our Pension/Retirement System Contributions ($834,000), MTA Tax ($187,000), Social Security ($226,672), and Special Education ($464,517).

Q. How much state aid does North Shore receive?
A. $4 million (3% of the budget) comes from state aid.

Q. Why do we receive so little state aid?
A. NY State calculates the amount of state aid based on the total value of all property within the district. Since North Shore is considered one of the “property wealthiest districts” in NY State, we receive the lowest state aid legally possible.

Q. How will increasing mandated costs and decreasing state aid affect North Shore Schools?
A. The only ways to offset rising mandated costs and decreasing revenue include:

Teachers/Administrators

Q. When was the teacher’s contract negotiated?
A. The teacher contract was negotiated two years ago prior to the economic recession. This negotiation resulted in teacher salaries falling from the 90th to 70th percentile in the county, employees’ contributions for healthcare increasing by an additional 5%, and the work day/year extending for our teachers. Since it is very important to attract and keep the very best teachers, our contracts must remain competitive.

Q. Are teachers going to take a pay freeze during this difficult economic year?
A. North Shore Central Office Administrators agreed to take a half-year salary freeze during the 2009-10 school year. Additionally, during the 2010-11 school year, the Administrator’s unit has agreed to take a half-year salary freeze. There will be discussions with various other groups including the teacher’s union about concessions. We can request that negotiations be reopened, but the union is under no obligation to renegotiate until the current contract expires in
June 2012.

Q. How many administrators do we have?
A. In the Central Office, we have three administrators while many districts our size have more. Our student-to-administrator ratio is one of the lowest in Nassau County. District-wide, we have five principals, three assistant principals at the secondary level, and one assistant principal serving all three of our elementary schools. Directors oversee curriculum/teachers/and programs for each subject area (i.e., math, science, social studies, etc.)

Contingency
**Is Very Different from Past Years and would be Disastrous for our Students**

Q. What does a contingency budget mean?
A. IIf the budget fails to pass, school districts are required to adopt a contingency budget. The contingency formula in NYS is 120 times the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or 4% higher than last year’s budget whichever is lower. Since the CPI for December 2009 was less than zero (0.48%), the district would be forced to operate during the 2010-11 school year with a budget that is 0.48% lower than the current 2009-2010 budget. This is very different than past years and would be disastrous for our children.

Q. If the budget fails what impact would that have on our schools and students?
A. Contingency would dramatically change the scope of our schools – the “unique and special” qualities that make the North Shore Schools distinctive. Under contingency, we will be forced to make the following drastic cuts:

• Termination of over 50 positions resulting in large increases in class sizes
• Removal of school programs including AP courses, enrichment, and electives
• Elimination of all extracurricular/interscholastic activities/events (i.e., sports, clubs,
plays, afterschool music groups, community service activities, etc.)
• Schools will only be open from 8 am – 3 pm

Class Sizes/College Acceptance

Q. Are North Shore class sizes comparable to the Nassau County average?
A. Although for many years class sizes at North Shore were below the Nassau county average, they are currently at the average. At the elementary level, we have approximately 20 students per class, and at the secondary level 24 students per class.

Q. What is our college acceptance rate?
A. 99%-100% of our students who apply to colleges are accepted. Close to 40% are admitted to highly competitive colleges including the Ivy League schools.

New Transportation Facility

Q. How is our new bus depot saving us money?
A. We have structured our transportation department in a way that enables us to employ many individuals on an hourly basis, saving us hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits. In addition, the facility has enabled us to decrease our dependence on outside contracted transportation, the cost of which has continued to rise dramatically.

Q. Will the bus depot become a source of revenue for the district in the future?
Yes, we are currently in negotiations with neighboring school districts to help provide for the servicing and maintenance of their fleet(s).

Interscholastic/Extracurricular Activities

Q. Can parents pay out-of-pocket for interscholastic/extracurricular activities?
A. This is not possible since it would create a highly inequitable system favoring those with the ability to pay. The purpose of a public education is to provide all students with equal opportunities through our schools regardless of their family income.

Q. How much money do we spend on athletics and the fine and performing arts?
A. The amount we spend on the arts and athletics is commensurate with other local districts. For interscholastic athletics, we spend approximately $1 million and for the fine and performing arts $360,000. We do have a “participation” policy for our Middle School Athletics programs which means that we create as many teams as there is student interest. Our extracurricular activities provide healthy opportunities for students to be involved/engaged in beyond the school day.

Board of Education

Q. What is the Board doing to curb costs and provide tax relief for our residents?
A. The district has been cited by the NY State Comptroller for being “particularly well run, with well-developed financial policies, effective internal controls and well-managed operations.” Additionally, Trustees have been addressing the larger issue by rallying other local Boards and community organizations to lobby our NY State Legislators to change the many laws that cause dramatic increases in costs to public education. We need your help! Please join us as a community to lobby Albany. We will be providing more information on this topic very soon. Please check our website for more information/updates.

Q. Trustees have been working with Nassau BOCES to consolidate services. How will it result in additional savings for our district?
A. Board members and superintendents have been working with Nassau County and BOCES to look at consolidating “back office” services.. These include: annual auditing services, IT and telephone service, transportation, and purchasing. We anticipate savings to be approximately $30,000 per year. If these plans proceed, they will take about three years to implement.

Q. Will there be field trips?
A.  In an effort to present the community with a very conservative budget, the funds for field trips were reduced from $65,000 in 2009-10 to $41,000 in the proposed 2010-11 budget. This budget line primarily pays for the transportation costs associated with the field trips. The parent associations of each school will be able to raise additional funds to supplement the field trip monies allotted to each building.

Q. What is the average cost per pupil?
A.  Total cost per pupil in Nassau County including all expenses (including special education, buildings and grounds, debt service for previous bond issues, state and federal mandates, etc) ranges from a low of $18,000 to a high of $35,000. When these expenses are deducted from our total budget, the cost per pupil for general education runs approximately $22,000 per student, which is less than many of our neighboring districts on the North Shore.   

Q.  What will be the difference in my taxes if the budget passes or fails?
A. We can only provide a rough estimate at this time, as NYS has not approved a budget for next year, and our state aid level will impact this figure.  In addition, we have not received the information that we need from Nassau County to set the tax rate.  However, our best estimate is that if the budget passes, for a homeowner whose home is valued at $700,000 the increase will be about $300 per year. If the budget fails and we go to contingency, the increase will be about $20 a year so the difference between the budget passing and contingency is about $280 per year or $23 per month.

If you have any additional questions, please email Superintendent Dr. Edward Melnick at melnicke@northshoreschools.org. Thank you.