The Roslyn Board of Education on Thursday got its first look at the potential 2018-19 school year budget, which includes a 3.31 percent increase in spending and a 2.86 percent rise in the tax levy.
Joseph Dragone, the district’s assistant superintendent of business, said the proposed $110,732,415 budget, which is a $3.551 million increase from this school year, is in the early planning stages.
The legal limit for the district’s tax levy is set at 3.85 percent, bur Dragone said he has no plans to reach the maximum.
“No one in this room is expecting an increase anywhere near the levy limit,” Dragone said. “We have not in the past increased our levy near the limit.”
He said levy increases over the last seven or eight years have averaged about 1.2 to 1.3 percent.
Dragone said the majority of the increases, approximately 97 percent of them, can be seen in five areas of the budget: health insurance, state Teachers Retirement System contributions, special education services, professional salaries and support salaries.
The five categories total $3.427 million, Dragone said, and the largest increase in those areas goes to the retirement contributions with a 14.7 percent increase of $648,590.
Superintendent Allison Brown said the budget includes a $1.75 million transfer to the capital reserve fund for a number of projects across the district, including repairing sidewalks at all schools, replacement of all heating and air conditioning units, installation of new playground equipment and “fall surfacing,” repairing plumbing and renovations for middle and high school locker rooms as well as elementary classroom lockers.
Brown said the budget was designed around four key words: curiosity, agency, risk-taking and collaboration.
Karina Baez, assistant superintendent for elementary instruction, and Michael Goldspiel, assistant superintendent for secondary education, discussed planned curriculum changes and additions.
Both administrators focused heavily on innovative and creative spaces across the district, such as expanding the East Hills Elementary School hub, which is a classroom with multiple spaces for students, from group project space on the front carpet to individual standing desks.
The district also plans to offer 14 new electives for middle and high school students, including general chemistry and introduction to romance languages in high school and American pop culture and film production for middle schoolers.
The board has four more budget presentations scheduled before the May 15 budget vote, including a Feb. 15 presentation on transportation and physical education, a March 8 presentation on facilities and technology, a March 22 presentation on personnel services and special education and a final presentation April 17 about district revenue and the tax levy.
A budget hearing will also be held on May 3.
