Herricks Board of Education trustees agreed last Thursday night to use $140,000 the district will save under the recent refinancing of interest on a bond to restore intramural teams and clubs discontinued to save money in the past two years.
Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth said he would meet with the district’s school principals and Herricks Athletic Director Jim Petricca to draft a “package” of specific programs to restore next week for the trustees to consider before their May 29 meeting.
Helen Costigan, Herricks assistant superintendent for business, announced at the board’s April 24 meeting that she had renegotiated the interest on a $10 million bond down from 4 percent or 4.5 percent to 1.5 percent – a savings of $1 million over the course of the bond.
“That’s phenomenal. We saved $1 million,” Costigan said at Thursday’s meeting.
Deirdre Hayes, assistant superintendent for instruction, said the seven teaching positions the trustees had already decided to restore under the 2014-15 budget would have a “big impact” on class sizes districtwide.
Hayes said she that while she couldn’t guarantee some classes won’t be larger than ideal, the restored positions would mean that there would no more “humongous” class sizes.
The board had already called for the addition of four teaching positions when they were notified that the district would be receiving $360,000 more in state aid than previously expected.
The board then agreed to use the additional money to fund three more positions. Herricks will receive a total of $9.6 million in state aid for the 2014-15 school year.
Voters in the Herricks School District will vote on May 20 on a $107.59 million school budget that would add rather than subtract teachers for the first time in three years. The school board eliminated 65 teaching positions and 100 jobs in the past three years.
The $107.59 million budget is a 2.84 increase over the current year and calls for a 1.73 percent increase in the tax levy, which falls within the state-mandated tax cap.
Board President Jim Gounaris and Trustee Christine Turner both spoke in support of a $3.5 million bond for capital improvements that will appear on the ballot in the May 20 election during a candidates forum preceding the meeting. Gounaris and Turner are both running unopposed for the two board positions up for election this spring.
“This is a bare bones bond,” Gounaris said.
Turner said the bond would not increase costs in the 2014-15 budget since debt service payments will be virtually the same as a bond that’s maturing later this year.
“The new bond will replace the bond that retiring so there won’t be any additional cost,” Turner said.
The bond would cover the replacement and installation of the middle school roof at an estimated cost of $1.73 million and the cost of three boilers to replace two existing boilers, which is estimated at $700,000, Costigan said.
The third boiler is intended to increase efficiency and provide back up if one of the other boilers is not working.
The district also intends to replace the Denton Avenue School roof at a projected cost of $180,000 and windows in the interior courtyard of the high school at an estimated $220,000.
Gounaris said if the $3.5 million bond proposition is defeated, the board “would put up the bond again” in a special referendum at a cost of $7,000.
“It’s a matter of health and safety. I don’t know how you can’t replace the roof at the middle school” Bierwirth said. “It’s sort of like a car. You have to change the tires.”
Gounaris has said he got involved in the Herricks PTA shortly after moving into the community in 1999, advocating for full-day kindergarten at the time. He regularly attended school board meetings before winning election to the school board two years ago, successfully challenging Jonai Singh, a co-president of the Herricks Council of PTAs, with an 11th hour entry into the race.
His fellow board members selected him to succeed Turner as school board president this year.
“I‘m seeking re-election because I love serving the community. I served this community since I moved in. I enjoy having a role in an official capacity as a trustee,” Gounaris said.
Turner has served on the board for 23 years, several of those years as its president.
“Now I can go to represent the senior citizens,” she said when she announced her candidacy. “I bring a lot of history to the school board.”
Costigan said while the proposed tax levy is a 1.73 percent increase, “the challenges for homeowners is the assessments.”
Costigan said 87 percent of residential tax appeals are successful each year, prompting increases in their neighbors’ taxes.
“Obviously something’s wrong with the assessment system,” she said.
Costigan said the most recent adjustments to the tax base, 93.22 percent of district revenues come from homeowners, with commercial businesses paying 3.52 percent, utilities 3.17 percent and apartments and condominiums .09 percent of the school district tab.
Voting on the budget, the bond and the school board candidates will be held on May 20 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. in the Herricks Community Center at 999 Herricks Road.
