There were some startling numbers revealed at last Thursday's Mineola Board of Education meeting, the first one during the new school year. The district is projecting that in five years, the district will be spending just under $32,000 to educate a student in Mineola, which would be approximately $11,000 more than what the Nassau County average is projected to be in 2009-2010.

The district currently spends approximately $23,000 to educate a child, which is among tops in the county. The county average is just under $17,000.

Board of Education president RoseAnn Buglione believes that the communities are reaching a threshold in terms of what they can afford for school districts. "This is what we believe is happening here in the community," she said. "We have to be extremely sensitive to that."

The projected 2009-2010 cost per child of $32,000 takes into account salary increases, health insurance and retirement contributions and expenses for anticipated capital improvements.

The good news is that the board of education is conscious of the fact that the community is struggling to pay current taxes, let alone another $9,000. Proof is that the Mineola proposed 2003-2004 budget had a proposed spending increase of 5.41 percent, which was good for 15th lowest in the county. Yet, the residents of the district failed the budget - twice.

The 2004-2005 budget of just under $65 million was passed by residents. However, it had a 4.28 percent increase in expenditures, third lowest in the county behind Roosevelt and Uniondale. It hardly seems likely the community would support an $89 million budget, which is what is projected for 2009-2010.

"We know the community can't support that," said board of education vice president Donna Strein.

The board and superintendent of schools Dr. Lorenzo Licopoli believe they have to continue to do what they have been doing the last three years - getting into a trend of getting the most for the money spent.

Dr. Licopoli pointed out that in the last three years, purposeful reduction were made in the expense side of the budget.

Yet, it appears a lot more work needs to be done if Mineola is going to cut expenses and maintain its current educational program considering that the greatest impact on the budget is contractual. Salaries and employee benefits account for 82 percent of Mineola 2004-2005 budget ($53,165,471 of the total budget of $64,884,612). Contractually, salaries and benefits will continue to rise. The key will be to raise revenues and cut expenses to lessen the impact to the community.

Dr. Licopoli and the board of education will strive to be financially conscious while improving student achievement since the school taxes may be easier for the community to swallow if student performance was among the highest in the county. The community is providing resources that are exceptional and deserve an exceptional education, the superintendent said.

In terms of cutting expenses and raising revenues, the district said it would be a community effort. The district is putting together a five-year financial planning team.

"We have to prove to the community what we're doing is the right thing," said Strein.