School Board adopts $12.4 million budget: No increase for taxpayers to fund

Shelter Island taxpayers won’t see an increase in the amount of money they need to pay to operate schools in the 2022-23 school year. They could even see a drop in their bills, since the tax base has increased, meaning more taxpayers will be contributing to the money needed.

The Board of Education on Monday night unanimously adopted the proposed budget on which voters will act on May 17.

Superintendent Brian Doelger, Ed.D., said taxpayers will be asked to fund $11.016 million of the $12.4 million budget. That’s the same amount homeowners forked up to fund the current $12.38 million budget. The full spending plan is up 0.49%, but increased revenues, including money from New York State and an allocation from its undesignated fund balance, keeps the taxpayer contribution even with the amount collected to fund the current school year.

In March, Mr. Doelger announced it would take $42,715 more in some combination of income and spending cuts to nullify any increase to taxpayers.

With passage of the State budget, District officials learned they will be receiving $4,389 more than previously budgeted. Add to that the $32,995 they originally thought it would cost to fund retirement systems for staff and teachers. But further scrutiny of the budget proposal and anticipated staffing changes allowed decreasing those allocations.

The final piece to eliminate any increase to taxpayers came by adding $5,331 to the amount originally budgeted to take from the district’s fund balance, money previously collected but not spent. Plans now call for using $685,331 from the fund balance.

In a 2020 report, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli had criticized the district for piling up reserve funds in its budgets by appropriating a surplus fund balance of $1.7 million from 2015 through 2018. Since that report, the district has been working to reduce its fund balance to the allowable 5% of the overall budget. Major strides toward that have occurred by creating other funds specifically designated for use in various ways.

Among the special funds created is a repair reserve fund that this summer is expected to provide about $75,000 for significant work needed on a concrete and cement plaza and steps outside the school’s main entrance.

Facilities Director Mike Dunning outlined the need, explaining the work was originally done 30 years ago and, due to stormwater that accumulates and freezes, expanding and cracking, the area must now be fixed. He’s awaiting costs of the project, although he speculated it would fall in the area of $75,000.

That money is already available, so it won’t affect the projected budget for the next school year. The projected budget for 2022-23 meets every goal the administration promised from the outset by:

• Staying beneath the state-imposed 2% tax cap, coming in at a 0% increase to taxpayers.

• Maintaining district programs.

• Demonstrating fiscal restraint.

• Identifying ways to implement cost savings.

• Designing a budget to provide the best education possible at the most efficient cost.

“We’re pleased to present a budget to the community that contains so many academic, social and emotional accomplishments, while also keeping taxes flat in these uncertain financial times,” Mr. Doelger said.

On May 9, the Board of Education will have an official public hearing to answer questions about the spending plan. But no changes can be made to the budget proposal as a result of that session.

Voting on the budget May 17 takes place between noon and 9 p.m. at the school gymnasium.