2010 Great Neck Memorial Day Parade

Chief Boatswain’s Mate Mark C. Lewis will lead the 2010 Great Neck Memorial Day Parade as the grand marshal. Lewis is on active duty as the officer in charge of the Coast Guard Station in Kings Point. This, Great Neck’s 82nd annual Memorial Day Parade, will be held on Monday, May 31.

GNPS: Change in Central Administration Structure

Three Positions Replaced With Two Assistant Superintendents

Responding to tough economic times, the Great Neck Public Schools made a cut in central administration staffing, going from three to two top positions in instruction/education, directly under the superintendent of schools. The positions of assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, executive director of elementary education, and executive director of secondary education were eliminated at the Board of Education’s May 10 public action meeting. The positions of assistant superintendent for elementary education and assistant superintendent for secondary education were established.

Zoning Case: Parking Lot at 2 Potters Lane Update

The case for a parking lot at 2 Potters Lane was propelled closer to a final determination at last week’s meeting of the Village of Great Neck Board of Zoning Appeals. In a vote of 3 to 2, the board ruled for a “negative declaration” in the matter of an environmental impact study. In essence, this means that the applicant, United Mashadi Jewish Community of America, will not be required to conduct a full environmental impact study, a lengthy and costly process.

The vote came after a long discussion among the board members and the attorneys. Board members Steve Markowitz and Victor Habib pressed for a full study, but chairperson, Dennis Grossman, said, “We no longer have a wooded area. What we now have is a denuded, muddy mess with tree stumps….we need to move forward.” Attorney for the board, Steve Limmer, agreed, saying, “You have to take the land as it is now…not what it was before.”

Old Village/New Main Street

The once proud Old Village boasted the first church, first school, first synagogue, first bank, first library, first polling place and first firehouse on the peninsula. Middle Neck Road in the Old Village was a teeming, thriving section of town and Arrandale Avenue was a wide boulevard of stately homes owned by prosperous merchants.

And while Middle Neck Road has some anchor stores and restaurants that are doing well even in these times and the Village Green has seen a recent facelift with its popular new children’s playground and bubbling fountain, no one would argue that sections look a little frayed around the edges with a hodgepodge of storefront facades, mixed signage, litter, empty stores, uninviting pedestrian ways and chaotic, vehicular traffic that borders on the lunatic especially at certain times of day.

Proposed 2010–11 School Budget

On Tuesday, May 18, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., at the E. M. Baker Elementary School and the William A. Shine-South High School, qualified residents of the school district will be asked to vote on the: 2010–11 School District Budget (Proposition No. 1); 2010–11 Public Library Budget (Proposition No. 2); One Board of Education Seat (incumbent Fran Langsner is running unopposed).

2010–11 School District Budget

Board of Education President Barbara Berkowitz said, “Our school board is responsible for establishing a school district budget that provides the best education possible and, at the same time, is responsive to the pressures on all segments of our community. These are difficult days, never experienced in many of our lifetimes. Since July, we have been examining every cent and have come up with a tight budget that does not compromise educational programs and the value we place on them, yet is mindful of the economic downturn. Although painful, we are meeting the challenges head-on. As a result, we have found ways to cut more than $5 million from the budget without the loss of quality and services to children. Roughly three quarters of every dollar in the budget is allocated for instruction, which is our first priority. Class size will remain low and will not exceed the limits that were established in 1984. We have tremendous concern about the impact of taxes on our residents and we are grateful for their continued support of public education in our community.”

Board Vice President Fran Langsner added, “We have retained what is important to provide an excellent education. With creative thinking, we have kept the cuts as far away from children as possible.”

Board Trustee Donald Ashkenase said, “Natural inflation would have increased our budget by more than $9 million, which would not have been fiscally responsible. We asked administration to cut everything it reasonably could to bring the inflation increase down to the lowest possible level. This difficult process was a team effort that had the full cooperation of the school administrators and parents. It resulted in reducing what would have been over a 5 percent increase to a 2.16 percent increase, which is at the low end of year-to-year increases in the County. We’ve come as close to a zero-based budget as possible. The budget we are presenting reflects the balance between the economics faced by the community and the value we place on public education.”

After extensive public discussion and input, during a lengthy and open budget process that started in our schools, the Board has adopted the Proposed School Budget in the amount of $189,547,240 for the 2010–11 school year. The increase over last year’s budget is 2.16 percent—this budget-to-budget increase is the lowest in 11 years. The increase in the amount to be raised by real property tax is 2.89 percent.

Almost all of the budget increase is for mandated items not controlled by the school district, such as the hefty new MTA commuter transportation tax imposed by New York State this year, Social Security, pension funds, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, health insurance, and Medicare reimbursements.

The major reductions in the budget, totaling more than $5 million, will have the least impact on the instructional program (which remains at more than 73 percent of the budget). These include:

elimination of one position in central administration.

elimination of the position of environmental-safety consultant.

retirement of 34 long-time employees (Tiers I & II) who opted for a retirement incentive offered by the school district.

reduction of 10.40 elementary teachers and 11.46 secondary teachers.

reduction of hourly teachers, teaching assistants, paraprofessional monitors, clerical staff members, coaches, and cleaners.

reduction of elementary before-school enrichment and academic-enrichment programs.

reduction of elementary and secondary intramurals.

reduction of technology projects.

In addition, school district administrators initiated a voluntary wage freeze for the 2010–11 school year and wage increases by all other employee units have been held down significantly. Also, user fees for K-12 summer programs and the Adult Program have been increased.

In Nassau County, boards of education are not legally permitted to set actual tax rates and assessments of property. This is done by the County, based on its assessed valuation of property. To minimize the impact of the County’s shift of property tax burdens to homeowners and away from businesses and utilities, the Great Neck Board of Education has been proactive in promoting legislation to eliminate the shift or to cap the increases caused by the shift to 1 percent (rather than the 5 percent allowable by law).

While there is no meaningful way to predict what impact the tax-rate increase will have on an individual’s property tax, our Class I (homeowner) school tax rate continues to be the second lowest of the 62 school taxing districts in Nassau County.

Independent Audit

An annual independent audit of every public school district is required by State Education Law/Commissioner of Education Regulations. The certified public accounting firm of Coughlin Foundotos Cullen & Danowski, LLP, our independent auditor, consistently presents extremely favorable reports on our management of finances, emphasizing our strong financial position, including wise investments and an excellent control system of checks, balances, and procedures supported by Board of Education policies. Ms. Langsner said, “Over the years, all of our external and internal audits have validated the extreme care our business department takes in making sure our tax dollars are spent wisely. Our books are always open for oversight by the taxpayers.”

Government-Mandated Services

The school district is required to provide a substantial number of mandated services imposed by the Federal, State, and County governments without sufficient aid to meet their costs. As a result, significant associated costs must be borne by the district. Ms. Berkowitz said, “The situation with regard to unfunded mandates is urgent. We are fighting them tooth and nail.”

Our State aid is far behind where it was 21 years ago. In 1989–90, State aid was 11 percent of our budget; next year, it is projected at 3½ percent of our budget, with many more mandates to fund.

The district is mandated by State law to provide transportation, textbooks, and health and other services to about 1,600 students who reside here but attend about 96 private, parochial, and special-education schools. Transportation, alone, is budgeted at a cost of about $4,620,000 for these students. Over the years, State aid to the district for transportation has plummeted from 90 percent of the total cost to about 4½ percent.

Revenue and Savings

About $10 million in revenue other than property taxes is anticipated in 2010–11 from various sources, including tuition from nonresident students, Adult Program fees, driver education fees, summer program fees, rental of space in school-district buildings by community groups, interest on deposits and investments, and State aid.

The Great Neck school district participates in a number of successful, cost-saving, cooperative ventures with neighboring districts and with Nassau BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services), particularly in the areas of insurance, transportation, and purchasing. The school district is in the second year of a recycling-program partnership with the Town of North Hempstead. It will continue its joint security arrangement with the Great Neck Park District.

Cost-saving efforts continue in many areas related to energy efficiency, technology upgrades, and communications. A fiber-optic Wide Area Network (WAN) connects 14 buildings, enabling the district to centralize information systems and consolidate voice, data, and video services in a cost-effective manner. The WAN facilitates a new Voice Over Internet Protocol phone system that provides modern features at a significant annual savings for phone service. The WAN also supports two important parent-communication systems: ParentLink and Infinite Campus Parent Portal. ParentLink enables the district to send mass notifications promptly in the event of an emergency. Infinite Campus Parent Portal provides parents with secure information about their children’s schedules, progress reports, report cards, attendance, and immunization records. The WAN will also support new video surveillance systems to monitor parking lots and entrances to our buildings for improved security.

Additionally, the school district reaps annual savings of up to 40 percent for all Internet, pager, local, long distance, and cellular phone service through participation in the Federal E-Rate program. Since 1996, when E-Rate was enacted, the district has received over $1.8 million in reimbursements.

 Last year, a cost-effective, major energy-enhancing project replaced most district boilers (some 60 years old), added solar-electricity panels on our four large secondary schools, and renovated and improved all heating-system controls. This was accomplished entirely from energy savings, with a guarantee of no additional net costs for the improvements.

For More Information

Copies of the 2010–11 Proposed Budget are available at the Phipps Administration Building, 345 Lakeville Road. Reference copies can be found in the schools and public libraries. It is also on the district Web site: greatneck.k12.ny.us. For more information about the School Budget, voter registration, absentee ballots, and voting, please call 441-4020.

School District Signs One-Year SCOPE Contract

Providing Before and After School Child Care

Beginning this coming September, for the 2010-2011 school year, the Great Neck School District will offer before school and after school child care for elementary school children in the district. The program, which will be paid for by parents of each child attending, will be provided by SCOPE. A one-year contract was authorized by the Board of Education.

Board of Education President Barbara Berkowitz explained that the school district began to look in to this childcare possibility about two years ago, due to requests by parents. She said that SCOPE was the one childcare provider that the district felt was the most “feasible” and the one most able to meet the district’s needs. Ms. Berkowitz reported that SCOPE has been able to tailor its program to meet the needs in Great Neck.

GN Library Board Adopts 2011 Budget And Signs Station Branch Lease

The Great Neck Library Board of Trustees held a public budget hearing on Tuesday, April 20 at the Main Library. The 2011 proposed budget was approved unanimously by the board and will be presented to voters on May 18. This sixth and final draft of the budget was prepared in accordance with the direction given by the board of trustees at the April 15 Special Board Meeting and incorporates the recommendations and input of the library director, staff, and comments made by the public at the budget workshops over the past several weeks. 

GNPS Adopts 2010-2011 Budget

The Great Neck Public Schools Board of Education adopted a $189,547,240 budget for the 2010-2011 school year. This represents a 2.16 increase over the current budget. It was the goal of the school board to limit the increase to as close to 2 percent as possible, while still maintaining the same level of education.

For this budget, $178,676,226 will have to be raised by real property tax, which accounts for 94.09 percent of the budget revenue, a 2.89 percent increase over the current budget. Only $6,752,849 is expected from state aid, which now only accounts for 3.57 percent of the budget. The rest of the budget revenue, 2.34 percent, is listed as “miscellaneous.”

From New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo: Suing to Shut Down Fake Breast Cancer Charity

(Editor’s Note: The Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition has advised the Great Neck Record that Coalition for Breast Cancer Cures “as absolutely no connection with the Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition (GNBCC).” GNBCC, which has never and will never telephone for donations, has served the Great Neck Community since 1992. Among its popular programs are the Lend A Helping Hand and Student Scientist Summer Scholarship programs. With its focus on the prevention of cancer, GNBCC is an all volunteer organization staffed by Great Neck residents who donate their time. On April 23 GNBCC’s president, Laura Weinberg, will receive a 2010 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Quality Award, the EPA’s highest honor awarded to the public sector. For more information about the Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition’s programs, visit: www.greatneckbcc.org.)

Old Village Crafts Fair Sunday, May 2

This year everyone is looking for a beautiful, warm sunny day for the Village of Great Neck’s Annual Crafts Fair on Sunday, May 2. Last year’s rain was pretty much a first for the much-anticipated event, and although it did not dampen everyone’s spirits, a bright day is the goal for this time. So we are predicting that the sun will shine on Sunday, May 2.

For this year, the 32nd year of the fair, as ever there will be a fun-filled day for the entire family. Something for everyone!