North Merrick BOE Adopts 2013-14 Budget

The North Merrick School District unanimously voted to adopt its official 2013-2014 budget.

The final step in the approval process is now in the hands of the public, who gets to vote on the budget on May 21.

Superintendent David Feller said that the budget that the district managed to avoid any cuts to programs or staff, thanks to a last-second increase in the anticipated amount of state aid the district received.

“We were faced with a difficult series of choices to make, because in the original proposal from the Governor, our state aid was going to be decreased, and this would have had an impact on certain programs that would not have been good for our educational process” Feller said. “Fortunately, the final budget from the state provided us with additional revenue, and we were able to restore the items that we were considering cutting back on, and we’re very glad about that.”

The 2013-2014 budget comes in at $28,897,000, a 4.92 percent increase over the previous year’s budget of $27,541,000. The Tax Levy is set at 3.21 percent, which is under the state’s maximum allowable cap of 3.63 percent.

Dr. Stephen Draper, Assistant Superintendent Business and Operations, went over some of the details that shaped the creation of next year’s budget, citing rising benefit costs as the biggest hurdle to clear.

“We saw huge increases in health benefit and employee retirement costs,” Draper said. ”This part of the budget went up $1.2 million dollars. Meanwhile, our increase to the overall budget was only $1.356 million. 89 percent of the budget increase is related to benefits. These are mandated and contractually obligated and we are paying for a great deal of it out of our reserves.”

Neil Brown, Board of Education President, thanked the board for its diligence throughout the process.

“Putting together a budget is quite a task, and it’s even a harder task when you don’t know what your state aid will be until the last minute,” Brown said. “I want to thank the administration and community for their diligence, and I’m happy that we’re keeping all of our programs in place.”

The public vote on the 2013-2014 budget will be held on May 21 at Harold D. Fayette School from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.