Two major challenges ahead for school; increase enrollment and control costs

For those who have suffered through three years of anxiety about whether the Shelter Island School could sustain its broken heating and cooling system, the 2016-17 school year represented success.

Shelter Island Faculty Association President Brian Becker said it best, when he returned to school last fall, announcing that at last he wouldn’t have to worry about being cold all winter.

While the district saw the need to replace the system as an emergency when it broke down in the fall of 2013, New York State did not. As long as the system could be kept running — even if it meant custodial staff working around the clock at substantial expense — the state would not budge. Work was finally completed t during the summer.

As the district winds up 2016, it can record several other substantial improvements to the building, including changes achieved under a performance contract that is guaranteed to save more money in energy costs over the 16-year life of the contract than it has cost the district to make those energy-saving changes.

The contractors are completing last minute work from checklists of items the district has identified as needing to be done before the  building projects are closed out. When that’s done, paid bills can be submitted to the state that will result in some reimbursements.

Two major challenges face school officials in the year ahead:
•    Efforts to attract students who have been attending classes off Island to the district
•    A struggle to tackle the 2017-18 school year budget, either by staying within the state-imposed tax levy limit or piercing the cap to pay for programs.

Selling the next budget to voters who get the last say in May is not an easy task.

Some parents opt to send their children to Catholic schools, choosing a religious education, while others are sending their children to private schools on the South Fork, believing they would receive a better education elsewhere.

One step in that direction is a planned open house, likely in February, for parents sending their children to other schools to show them the opportunities the district offers.

As for budgeting, the process will begin on January 9 with an effort over the course of at least seven workshops before the budget proposal is adopted on April 19 with the public vote slated for May 16.

Last May, the $10.96 million budget required a super majority to pass because it pierced the state cap and it squeaked by with just two votes more than required.

Ironically, a year earlier an $11 million budget had passed with 82 percent of voters approving that spending plan.

It was thought by members of the Board of Education last year that one factor contributing to the close vote was comments from parents about what they saw as a $50,000 per student cost of educating students on the Island.

Some argued that at that cost, Shelter Island students should all be scoring top grades on standardized tests.

Typically, in comparing various districts’ costs to one another, certain expenses aren’t included in the tally. For example, Shelter Island, because of ferry fare, must pay more to transport students to participate in shared sports teams or other activities with North Fork schools.

What started out as a 2 percent cap on the tax levy, meanwhile, has decreased year by year for most school districts and municipalities as the numbers are recalculated each year based on the previous year’s spending. It is has been below 1 percent and likely to shrink further for the district as the Board of Education struggles with the next budget.

Consistently, the board has tried to make cuts that don’t require elimination of programs that directly affect students.