Days before the Levittown Board of Education officially adopted its 2003-2004 budget, residents expressed concerns that tax increases would be too much to take.

Resident Chris Costello asked the board to "trim the fat" at the April 9 meeting of the board of education and said proposed installations of air conditioning at school auditoriums was an unnecessary expense. A second resident added that the board must make difficult cuts as New York City has and also mentioned that salary and health benefits were out of control.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Herman Sirois responded that he understood the concerns of residents and encouraged them to look at the budget line-by-line.

"We always encourage everyone to look at [the budget]. If you have recommendations, the board would be more than happy to listen to every suggestion. I've heard the 'need to trim the fat' concerns before," Dr. Sirois said. "Our best citizen is the one who knows the budget and those citizens almost always support the budget. Levittown is an extremely efficiently run program. $138 million is certainly in-line considering we're the second largest district in the county. Our staff gets a lot of mileage out of the money we spend."

In addition, Dr. Sirois said the state's proposed budget cutbacks for school districts was "terrible." As for air conditioning, the superintendent said it would allow auditoriums to have many more uses, and the money would come from a bond issuance and not affect taxpayers in the upcoming budget.

Board President Paul Granger asked taxpayers to continue to reach out to state senators to alert them that the state's education budget cutbacks were unacceptable.

Speaking of budgets, a PTA representative discussed its own with the board. A 10-member committee came up with four recommendations. First, it asked the board for lower class sizes in grades 3-5; second, it asked the board to have at least one psychologist in schools; third, it said it endorsed the board's proposed $12 million bond issuance that would help pay for capital improvement projects and lessen the 2003-04 tax increase for residents; and finally, it asked the board to add money to secondary school library budgets. The PTA representative said the average age of books in high schools and middle schools is 28 years, and one library book was old enough to only assume that man would walk on the moon.

Also during the meeting, a number of residents spoke against an "integrated lunch" for special education students. According to parents who spoke at the meeting, the board has considered the possibility of having special education students eat lunch with the rest of the "general population" of students beginning in the fall. Currently, there are about 80 special education students who eat solely with each other. Resident Debra Hillman told the board that the special education students liked eating with each other and the board shouldn't change something that isn't "broken." Robert Gross added that "no good socialization" would take place between special education and other students. And he said special education students would be subject to verbal abuse. "They are special education students," he said. "But I don't think they will be treated special."

Dr. Sirois responded that a number of the parents' comments made sense. He said it was unfortunate to hear about the potential for verbal harassment and he sure hoped that wasn't the case. He added that a mailing would soon go out to residents, who would have a chance to make comments before any decision is made.

Also at the April 9 meeting, Dr. Sirois announced revisions were made to elementary school report cards. Report cards for grades 3-5 were designed to be more "parent friendly" with their wording. Orders of subjects on the report cards were changed as well. The revised report card is expected to take effect in the fall.

At the April 14 Budget Hearing, the first of two budget hearings the district is holding prior to the May 20 budget vote (the second will be one week before the budget is voted on) the Levittown Board of Education went over the proposed budget for the 2003-2004 school year line-by-line and officially adopted a $136,981,575 budget. This figure represents a 7.05 percent increase of the current budget if it were to be passed without the bond.

At the meeting, which was attended by only about a dozen residents, the board also heard residents' comments regarding the proposal to install an elevator at Lee Road Elementary School, a two-story building. Some parents expressed their concerns about students who cannot get to the second floor. They said that even if their classroom was moved to the first floor, the library and computer rooms are located upstairs. The cost for the elevator installation was included in the bond passed last year and at the April 14 meeting the board voted to go ahead with the project.

A sole resident spoke during the public hearing portion of the meeting, asking the board to adopt a budget that doesn't cut programs but is economically sound.

"While as a parent, I would like to see increases in services for our children, I know that under current economic conditions that is highly unlikely," she said. "So I ask you to present a budget that will not decrease the educational and extra-curricular programs the district currently provides to our children. Anything less would be a disgrace."

The board also heard from the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), a group of nine residents who met in recent weeks to discuss certain aspects of the budget. A representative from this committee presented their proposals regarding five areas of the budget, including physical education/athletics, maintenance and grounds, career and technical education, transportation and pupil services.

In an effort to keep expenditures down, the committee suggested that certain things, such as the addition of track teams and the hiring of a part time consultant to explore maintenance and grounds options, be held off. They did recommend that additional transportation vehicles and some psychologists be added at certain schools.

After making some recommendations, CAC representatives requested that the board provide more time to the committee in upcoming years so that they may look over the budget more thoroughly. The board assured them that this would be looked into and should not be a problem.

"It's important that we get feedback on the budget process," Granger said.

A representative from the PTA-established Educational Tools Committee also presented comments to see what items should be purchased by the school district as opposed to what parents should purchase. The nine-member committee recommended that the district have available a special calculator students need to do certain projects in the classroom, while parents should be made aware of where they can purchase one for home use. In addition, the committee suggested that items such as crayons, colored pencils and safety goggles should be provided by the district for student use. They further noted that parents should receive a list of generic school supplies they need to purchase in June, not to exceed a certain amount (depending on grade level) so that they may have ample time to purchase those items.

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Robert L. Davis noted that for the most part the district agrees with all the suggestions presented by the committee.

In addition to these presentations, the board reviewed the technology and pupil services budgets for the upcoming school year as well. The program directors for both areas were on hand to answer any questions board members may have had. Items that were included in the technology budget were, among others, instructional equipment, professional and technical services, state aided hardware (where the district receives a refund depending upon how much they spend - Levittown gets back 40 percent), educational software, equipment repairs, in-service training, Internet usage, professional literature and media library.

Under the pupil services budget (for special education students), types of services provided include transitional support services, teacher consultant services, resource room, alternate day support class, out-of-district placement, home and hospital instruction, and others.

There are currently 956 students enrolled in the school district who are classified as special education students. In addition, 121 students come from out-of-district to take advantage of Levittown's program - for a total of 1,077 students. It was noted that this is the current enrollment number, which not only changes year to year but can also change daily.

The district is also looking to start a new program, a class for students with autism. Currently, autistic students who live in Levittown travel as far away as Ronkonkoma and the cost for them to attend out-of-district programs is $56,000 for tuition and up to $23,102 for transportation. To educate these students in-district would cost $38,000, less than half the price. It was also noted that parents of those students who travel out-of-district were delighted with the notion that their children would be able to be educated in Levittown's schools.

Assistant Superintendent for Business & Finance Jeffrey Carlson made a presentation to the board regarding where the budget currently stands at a 7 percent increase. Carlson noted several budget challenges, including the fact that the governor's proposed budget represents a 15.6 percent reduction in state aid to the district. In addition, he noted that there is an 1,100 percent increase in the ERS contribution rate, a 700 percent increase in the TRS contribution rate and a 13.5 percent increase in health insurance.

Carlson added that the areas which represent a major increase in the budget for 2003-2004 include salaries, special education/BOCES, the TRS and ERS, and health insurance, Social Security, workers compensation, etc. Areas of the budget that will not see an increase are capital projects, equipment and supplies and materials. It was noted that principals and directors were told that they had to freeze their budgets at last year's numbers so that there would be no increase in expenditures.

Carlson explained that the decrease in state aid Levittown is expecting to experience is the largest dollar amount in Nassau County. He noted that state aid funded 28 percent of this year's budget and will fund only about 22 percent of the budget for 2003-2004. He further noted that there are some things which can be done to help lower the tax levy, which the board sets in August. He said that one thing that can be done is to put up a bond, which the board passed resolution to do, which would provide alternative funding for capital projects normally included in the regular budget. Passage of the bond would lower the budget by $2 million per year for the next five years. If the bond does pass, the 7 percent increase in the budget would be lowered to a 5.4 percent increase over the current budget.

Another option to help lower the tax levy would be to apply a portion of the fund balance. Carlson explained that the fund balance would have to be restored soon thereafter and that dipping into that balance would be a one shot deal.

"I don't think anybody would want to run the district on an ongoing basis without a fund balance," Carlson said, noting that it should be restored as soon as possible. "It's nice to have a little money in the bank to rely upon in case of emergency."

Carlson noted that the bond and use of the fund balance would bring the tax levy down from 18.1 percent to 11.9 percent.

Carlson noted that generally when a school district opts to pass a budget it is because they are looking to pay off major capital projects. He explained that this is not the case for Levittown's bond proposal, rather the bond is a way to offset the strain a budget alone would put on taxpayers.

"This bond would bring down the budget a little over the next several years," he said. "It lowers the budget without eliminating the work needed to be done on the buildings in the district. It just spreads the payment out over the next several years."

Carlson added that one of the reasons it would make sense to pass a bond is because of a new state law which will take effect during the upcoming school year.

"It used to be that if we did a project one year, funded through the budget, we would get the aid on it the following year," he said. "Now, even if we fund projects through the budget and pay for it all in one shot, we get the aid back over the next several years. So what this does is match when we pay it out to when we get it back. It also helps keep the tax spread out over that state aid reduction."

By the end of the meeting, the board officially adopted a budget of $136, 981, 575, which represents a 7.05 percent increase over the current budget. If the budget passes by itself, there would be a tax increase of 18.1 percent. If the budget fails, there would be a 4.7 percent budget increase and 14.5 percent tax increase. If voters pass both the budget and bond, there would be a 5.4 percent increase in the budget and an 11.9 percent tax increase.

If the district were forced into a contingency budget, the spending cap requires a reduction of $2,907,270.

In the event that residents vote down the budget twice, the district would be forced to cut several programs, including interscholastic sports, late buses, field trips, reduction of elementary class size, drug and alcohol counselors, the gifted and talented program, third grade instrumental music, kindergarten and resource room aides, and maintenance, grounds and custodial workers as are required for extracurricular activities.

In addition, Carlson explained that in the event of a contingency budget, the district cannot allow outside groups use district buildings at any cost to the school district. A contingency budget still carries a tax increase of 14.5 percent.

"Most of the tax increase is due to the reduction of state aid, not because the budget is going up a lot," Carlson said.

The board of education will have a special meeting on April 29 for their BOCES vote. The second public hearing will be held on May 13, which will also be a regular board meeting. Residents will vote on the budget on May 20, after which the board will have a special meeting to certify the vote.