Pearl River Board Meeting to Feature Budget Presentation

Pearl River School District Director of Operations Quinton Van Wynen will make his first 2012-13 budget presentation during Tuesday's board of education meeting, which begins 7:30 p.m. in the administrative office building on Crooked Hill Road.

The full agenda for the meeting can be found attached to this article.

Van Wynen's presentation will include a budget review from 2006-2012. It will also include the goals in the budget process, which include:

• Develop a budget with a tax levy at or below the state-mandated 2% limit
• Maintain class sizes
• Maintain core courses in Pearl River High School and Pearl River Middle School
• Protect co-curricular and extra-curricular activites
• Continue to manage staff reductions through attrition

Rather than allowing programs to dictate the budget, the tax cap may force the district to determine what the available funds are and then make decisions from there.

Another part of the process will be determining the best use for approximately $1 million the district will receive in a settlement reached in December with Olympus Surgical & Industrial America, Inc.

Among the other items on the agenda, the board will:

• Consider adding a members to the district's Committee on Special Education and Committee on Preschool Special Education. 
• Recognize the Civil Service Employees Foundation as the negotiator for the district's custodial and maintenance labor unit.
• Hold the second and final readings for two new board policies, one on distribution of district information and the other regarding trespassing on school property.