Dateline Herricks, just received by all Herricks residents details fully the 2005/2006 proposed budget to be voted on in the upcoming May 17 election. It is suggested that all residents read Dateline Herricks thoroughly so they are informed Herricks School District voters.

Some of the highlights include the $397,000 in additional state aid, $100,000 in revenue for the rental of 99 Shelter Rock Road to BOCES, continuing mandated increases imposed by the New York State Retirement Systems and State Health Insurance Programs, higher fuel costs, the addition of Chatham properties to the tax roles, "first payments in lieu of taxes" from the Bristol.

Herricks residents may vote on the Herricks School District Budget on May 17 at the Herricks Community Center Gymnasium from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Residents will also have an opportunity to vote on the two school board candidates who are running unopposed. They are Christine Turner who has been a school board trustee for the last 15 years and who is running for reelection and Nalini Chugh who is running for election for the first time.

The increase in the overall tax levy is 6.93 percent and that number is highly unlikely to change since the New York State budget, including state aid to schools, was approved before April 1, 2005.

However, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business Helen Costigan, "Projecting the percentage increase on specific homes is difficult for two reasons. First, over the past several years, Nassau County has significantly reduced the share of real estate taxes paid by commercial properties and utilities (Classes II, III and IV) and significantly increased the share paid by homeowners (Class I)."

The second reason is that the county continues to change the relative value of individuals' homes in the process of changing the assessed value of homes from 2 percent of the estimated full value prior to 2003 to 1 per cent of estimated full value in 2003/'04 and 1/2 percent of estimated full value for '05/'06. The county has further indicated that it will reduce the assessed value to 1/4 percent for the year after next. In light of the changes in relative values and the affect of homeowners mounting successful challenges to their reassessments, changes in tax rates for individual homeowners have varied significantly.

When the school board president opened the meeting to the public, a male resident of the district requested more detailed information regarding the budget than what is supplied in Dateline Herricks. He wanted to know how the district ranked with other districts in relation to teachers' salaries, principal salaries and the superintendent's salary.

He said,"I have worked for a lot of large companies and every year the employees are asked to do 'more with less' but in every year the school district keeps raising my taxes. Just give me more data to make me feel comfortable."

School board president Peter Grisafi said,"The budget process lasts for two months and it is held in public. We go over each segment of the budget and we explain why expenses are rising. As far as the teacher rankings are concerned the state has a website in which the rankings are listed. Naturally, the brochure that was sent out does not include everything because it would be too large if it did, but it is an attempt to give an overall picture. During the budget process we field any questions any of the residents might have. However, that process has ended but next year we hope that you will be part of the budget process by attending the many budget meetings that we have."

Grisafi continued, "We will get you a particular handout that the PTA Council has distributed of statistics and where we fall in expenditures in comparison to other districts. At that point a resident yelled out, "That information is not up-to-date, let's be honest. It's from 2002."

Superintendent Bierwirth said that the information is the most recent compiled from New York State. Then Dr. Barnes added, "We did negotiations with teachers last year and we were about the median of all of the Nassau County schools. There are 56 districts and that would put us somewhere at 23, 24 or 25 place in terms of salaries. We are not at the top of the list by any means."

The resident asked about the Herricks website and Dr. Bierwirth said it was www.Herricks.org. He explained, "It does not at this point have the budget. We will start doing that next year. We reconstructed our website just this spring."

Another resident wanted to know the exact amount of state aid the district would be receiving and Dr. Bierwirth explained that it was $397,000 more than last year.

The pension funds and the health insurance were explained in detail. It was said that at the state level the increases are not kept at a consistent pace and if the Herricks employees did not agree to pay a larger portion of their health insurance the amounts would be even higher.

A resident wanted to know the amount of money the district has "recouped" from the health insurance. Costigan reported the amount is $33, 248.59 (it was discovered a few years ago that due to an error in accounting some retirees were receiving funds higher than they should receive. The district dispatched letters to those retirees and many of them have paid back the overage amount they received in error). As a result of another inquiry it was reported that to date the amount paid for legal fees in the district is $144,716.

One resident asked what the legal fees were for and President Grisafi explained that the fees were for the most part confidential and could not be explained which caused an amount of comment from various audience members.

Representatives of Pappas & Company were present to give the Internal Audit report. James Pappas, one of the owners, was on hand along with Rhonda Messerole, who is the Pappas representative assigned to the Herricks district and she gave the report.

She explained that Pappas had been appointed as the internal auditor for the district in February and she was given the Herricks assignment. Therefore, she actually works in the district and by doing so has a stronger handle on how the district is handling its funds.

She said she has 20 years' experience, plus she is a certified school board administrator, although she has never served in that capacity.

Messerole went on to explain that since she has been in the district she is very pleased about the way the bills are put together on the warrant. She looks at all funds, and there are a number of them. She looks at the payroll warrant and the money covering the payroll.

She said, "Because of my experience I am able to offer suggestions and really work as an internal auditor not as an internal claims auditor. Since my appointment I have made several suggestions to the board which they have implemented. For instance in the case of utility bills that must be paid on time or receive a penalty I suggested that they be paid and then I will look over those bills to make sure everything is as it should be.

"It is just to make things better than they are. I have not found anything wrong since I have been here in February, but I feel that if there are things I can suggest to the board due to my experience. In that way I will be able to make sure that all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed.

"I also reviewed all of the health rates for all the different bargaining units and they are all accurate both on an individual level and family coverage.

"Further, I issue a report monthly based on all of the warrants I approve that carry my signature. I review every single invoice. I did do a review of the internal controls and made a few suggestions, one of them being a 'paid' stamp on all invoices that have been paid and that helps to prevent duplicate payment. I didn't find that to be the case, but it's another safeguard."

She then asked if there were any questions and Board President Grisafi said that Pappas and Rhonda Messerole will be conducting a workshop for school board members to make sure that all board members, especially new ones, know the methods that are being used in the audit process.

Pappas pointed out that an internal auditor has not as yet been mandated by the state. He commented, "So Herricks has taken a step forward in doing it now rather than waiting it to be mandated in a year or so."

One audience member wanted to know about checks. Grisafi said, "They are signed with two signatures, but bills are not paid until they are reviewed by our internal auditor and then approved by the board before they are paid."

Dr. Bierwirth said, "One of the things we don't do is have the kind of manual handwriting checks they had in Roslyn. Our checks are computer-generated and we have control over them at all times."

Messerole further commented, "The signature of the treasurer that appears on the checks is on a disk that only the treasurer inserts into the computer and has control over under lock and key. There are no rubber stamp signatures that anyone might be able to use. It is all computerized."

There were a few other questions and then the auditors left the meeting.

Superintendent Bierwirth announced that a deal has been struck with the Town of North Hempstead to redo the Herricks High School Driveway. Bierwirth said that the district will pay the town to do the job and it will be at substantially less cost than if the district did it. Bierwirth added, "Hopefully it will be completed by graduation."

Superintendent for Personnel Dr. Ronald Barnes announced that Eugene Tan, a senior at Herricks High, was one of 14 students selected from hundreds on Long Island who competed at a New York State Science Congress Fair. Tan will go to SUNY Old Westbury to compete with his project that focuses on cancer by using a combination of drugs.

Dr. Barnes also announced that on May 18, 19 and 20 the visiting team from the Tri-State Consortium will be at Herricks to evaluate its math curriculum from K through 12. Dr. Barnes said that there would be 25 professional representatives from highly competitive high schools in the New York area of Long Island, New York, Westchester and Connecticut. Dr. Barnes said that he would give more detailed information on the evaluation process at the next board meeting.

The topic of the increasing enrollment in the Herricks schools which was covered at the meeting will be reported in the next issue of the Illustrated News. The next school board meeting will be held on May 19 at 7:15 p.m. at Center Street School.

The school board election, as mentioned, will be held on May 17 at the Herricks Community Center from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The results of the election will be reported in the next issue of the Illustrated News.