Pearl River Schools Project No Program Cuts, 2.97% Tax Rate Increase for 2012-13 (VIDEO)

One year ago, the Pearl River School District faced a difficult budget process, with even larger challenges expected for 2012-13.

The projected bottom line looked much better during Director of Operations Quinton Van Wynen's 2012-13 budget presentation at Tuesday's Board of Education meeting. 

Van Wynen projected no program cuts and a 2.97% tax rate increase with the use of $100,000 in fund balance for 2012-13. The district will also comply with the state's new tax levy cap, with a levy increase of 2.15%. 

"That puts us under our target we promised the last several years to the taxpayers," Van Wynen said. "We will be able to keep all of our programs in place. We will be able to continue to deliver the product we are proud to deliver. That is where we stand now."

Pearl River Board of Education President Michael Clohessy pointed to the importance of salary givebacks by all of the district's labor unions last year as a major factor in keeping taxes down without losing programs.

"I remember telling people this year we would be in a bad position," Clohessy said. "The cuts would be personal. We didn't get there because all of our bargaining units threw back a lot of the increases they were expecting to get this year. 

"The employees of this district stood up for the students. That's why were are in a position of not cutting anything and a pretty decent tax increase this year. We kept the commitment to be under three percent. It should be noted that the reason we're in this position is the employees."

Current Pearl River Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Morgano led the negotiations for the district last year, when he was assistant superintendent in charge of personnel. 

"The give-backs from each of the bargaining units had a multi-year effect, Morgano said. "It is not just one year. There is a cumulative effect. I said it when it was done and I will say it again. That will never be forgotten because it has had a great impact. It showed the community that the people who work here really care about the community and the children. Every teacher in this school district has thousands of dollars less in their pocket because of what they did."

Details of the givebacks by teachers and administrators can be found here. The renegotiations for the teaching assistants can be found here, but all of the units agreed to smaller increases.

Van Wynen said the budget does not include any money from the $1 million settlement with Olympus Surgical & Industrial America Inc., though approximately $200,000 of that has been spent on overages in the 2011-12 budget and money that was owed to the Pearl River Public Library. 

"Personally, I think we could spend a couple hundred thousand on construction and put a good bit aside for the next couple of years," Van Wynen said. "I think it is a good time to have a little extra in reserves, but that is a conversation that still has to take place."

The meeting agenda, including slides from the budget presentation, is attached to this report.

Van Wynen's presentation also included a look at revenue, including state aid, rental income from BOCES and A Starting Place and the use of district facilities. He did suggest increases in charges for use of district facilities by entities outside the district. Those include:

• High School/Middle School auditorium - from $300 to $400
• Athletic fields - from $40 to $75
• Custodial charge, weekday - from $30/hour to $40/hour
• Custodial charge, Saturday -from $60/hour to $70/hour
• Custodial charge, Sunday/holiday - from $80/hour to $100/hour

Director of Facilities Robert Nelan gave a presentation focusing on his department. He projected the budget for facilities would go down by over $81,000 from $3.62 million to $3.54 million for the 2012-13 budget. 

"We have been able to keep the budget fairly steady the last couple of years," Nelan said. "(The reduction) is mostly due to the new energy management program was just completed."

Nelan said he is projecting a savings of $44,000 in gas and electric bills alone due to the impact of the program. He added that the facilities department had to deal with the move of the administration from the high school to the new building on Crooked Hill Road this fall, so that expense would come off the books.

Nelan said the focus going forward in facilities would be on the ongoing bathroom project, the construction of new classrooms at the high school in the space formerly occupied by the administration and the construction of the Athletic Director's office.

Tuesday's meeting also included a presentation on athletics, but Athletic Director Todd Santabarbara was with the girls basketball team for its state playoff game in Johnson City. Van Wynen presented the information in his place.

"To be fair to the AD, he did a lot of charts and graphs, but I'm a bottom-line guy," Van Wynen said.

Santabarbara's recommendation for athletics includes keeping all 63 teams, which includes 27 varsity, 15 junior varsity, two freshmen and 19 modified squads. 

Van Wynen stressed the importance of the creativity shown by Santabarbara and Marietta Florio in the athletic office in working to keep travel expenses down. 

"They work hard to double up on buses for kids going to different events," Van Wynen said. "They work with other schools to have multiple games going on at different locales on a given day. (The teams are) staying closer to home, not going over the (Tappan Zee) bridge as often as we used to."

The annual totals for the Athletic Department are as follows:

• 1,626 student athletes (students playing on multiple teams are counted twice)
• 63 teams
• 83 coaches being paid $426,143 in stipends
• $62,150 in officials fees
• $143,661 for transportation
• $14,745 for entry fees
• $41,557 for rentals (such as ice time at Sport-O-Rama and pool time at Felix Festa Middle School)
• $16,081 for supplies.

Check back with Pearl River Patch for more on Tuesday's board of education meeting.