By Samuel Glasser
The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Board of Education publicly presented the 2024-2025 proposed budget for the last time Monday night before it goes to the voters on May 21.
Spending for the 2024-2025 school year will total $48,101,950, a 2.34% increase from the current budget of just under $47 million.
“We have preserved all essential academic programs and personnel,” District Superintendent Jennifer Morrison-Raptis told the meeting.
The tax levy will total $34,440,460, a 2.88% increase which is below the district’s allowable cap of 3.03%. The tax cap is determined by a state-prescribed formula that varies from district to district. The tax levy accounts for 71.6% of the budget.
“Out of respect for our community the district is once again complying with the New York State property tax cap,” Morrison-Raptis noted.
She pointed out that the budget is made up of three parts: the program component, $34,165,163, or 71% of the total; the administrative component, $6,740,326, or 14% of the budget; and the capital component of $7,196,371, or 15%.
State aid accounts for nearly 23% of the budget and the district will see a cut of almost 3% for the coming year. The state’s original proposal would have seen the district receiving $11,046,643, a decline of $336,309 from the current year. Deputy Superintendent Michael Frank noted, however, that “the final recalculated figure amounted to roughly $15,000 more than we were slated to receive from the governor’s proposal.”
District enrollment is slated to increase by six students to 1,460.
In other news at the meeting, Hillside Grade School fifth graders Carita Chai, Zoe Lee and Gianna Ramos were recognized for qualifying for the Statewide Elementary Mathematics Tournament, hosted by the New York State Education Department and First in Math, at the University at Albany on June 1.
The tournament consists of a virtual regional contest and an in-person statewide championship event. Fifteen students qualify from each region and 150 participate in the main event.
The district said that the Hillside Grade School will receive a plaque and a $1,000 prize from the state education department.
The board also recognized Hillside Grade School students third-grader Abiel Benly and sixth-grader Alina Benly for their winning artwork submissions to the Shanti Fund Peace and Education Calendar contest.
The board also appointed new probationary teachers for the coming school year: music teachers Calob Congdon and Alyssa Budzynski; special education teachers Ashley Benvengo and Arianna Anzano; elementary teachers Crista LaRock, Sarah Carbain and Taylor Fritz. Deanna DelSanto was appointed as a leave replacement elementary teacher.
