School Board set to pare budget; members need additional sessions

Faced with the reality that they must go above the state-imposed tax cap for the first time, Shelter Island Board of Education members said they’re determined to scrutinize their budget line-by-line to find savings.

The district is limited to a 0.12 percent spending increase in its tax levy, meaning spending could only increase by about $11,000 if the board opted to stay within the cap.

With payments commencing next year on a $1.6 million bond that voters approved in 2014, it makes it virtually impossible to stay within the cap, members said at their meeting Monday night. And even with some cuts, contract talks are underway with teachers and mandated costs associated with special education services would force spending to increase, according to Business Manager Tim Laube.

Two parts of the budget have been made public — spending for administration and education — with the third part, facilities, to be unveiled March 21.

Focusing on the educational sector, Mr. Laube outlined proposed spending that would:
• Decrease staffing costs by 5.3 percent because of a retirement, bringing the figure down to $2.79 million from $2.95 million in the current year.

• Increase non-personnel expenses by 20.8 percent, attributable to contractual services related to materials requested by teachers. That line would increase from $23,662 to $38,823 of 64.1 percent if approved by the Board of Education.

The special education budget is projected to drop by just under 1 percent, Academic Administrator Jennifer Rylott said.

The budget that was $1.04 million this year will drop by 0.88 percent next year to $1.03 million.

Special education services are determined by a child’s specific needs and are mandated, she said.

Mr. Laube outlined various overall projections for spending on the educational part of the budget:

• Increase educational support services by 2.8 percent from $652,239 to $670,257.

• Increase co-curricular activities costs by 2.5 percent from $91,429 this year to $93,697 next year.

• Increase educational transportation costs by 3.82 percent from $306,252 to $317,951. Some of that increase is attributable to transportation of special education students to off-Island schools.

Ms. Rylott outlined changes in special education services, explaining that each student’s individual education plan is evaluated annually and, where possible, needs are provided locally. But there are situations in a small district where failure to send a student off-Island would require a one-to-one teaching situation because no other student is at the same level.

Not only would the extra staffing be expensive, but it would deny the student important socialization, Ms. Rylott said.

Among her goals in the next school year is to offer a special education summer program since students tend to regress in their learning over the several weeks when classes stop for the summer.

Todd Gulluscio, director of physical education and district operations, presented an outline of sports programs that would increase spending by 5.8 percent.

Board members are taking two approaches to keeping spending as low as possible:
• Paring spending wherever possible while making cuts that would have the least impact on students
• Searching for grant money to cover costs for technology and other equipment vital to programs

After the eye-opening review of educational costs, the board agreed it would need two to three additional budget sessions to hammer out the spending plan for 2016-17.

In addition to the already scheduled sessions for March 21-28, and the anticipated adoption of the budget proposal on April 20, additional meetings have been set for April 4-11 and, if needed, April 18.