By Madeline Armstrong

The Port Washington Board of Education held a meeting on Tuesday, March 8 to discuss the new budget for the school district. The budget is being discussed in multiple different parts and the final version will be adopted on April 12.

During the public comments, Jessica Melwani, co-president of the Port Washington parent’s council, asked the board to create funding for playground equipment at the elementary schools. “All of our playground equipment will require investment,” she said.

Another parent shared the same sentiment, saying that school playgrounds are important due to the lack of parks in town. “I’m glad to see Covid in our rearview mirror and we can focus on the children,” she said. “Every one of our kids will be affected if this does not pass.”

Kathleen O’Hara, assistant superintendent of business, proposed the budget to the board. Since the budget is being discussed in multiple parts, this presentation covered athletics, creative arts, transportation and security requests.

The athletics requests include a JV football assistant coach position, the replacement of outdated or worn football, lacrosse, soccer and gymnastics equipment as well as the purchase of additional pieces to account for increases to enrollment numbers and additional middle school boys and girls winter track coaching positions.

The athletics department currently includes 49 varsity and junior varsity teams at the high school and 32 teams at the middle school, with over 23% participation at the high school level and over 16% at the middle school level.

According to O’Hara, supply costs for the creative arts have increased significantly due to the increasing use of technology and field trips resuming post Covid restrictions. There will also be a significant increase in utilities for next year (a 52% increase in electricity and 27% increase in gas). There is also a five year roof replacement schedule being put in place.

“We first started talking about roofs a couple years ago because we had roofs breaking down,” said one of the board members, “to see that by the end of next year we will be done with the majority of our buildings is  amazing and I really appreciate the work and forward-thinking of the administration to make this happen.”

Transportation makes up five percent of the budget. The Port Washington district is the seventh-largest geographically in Nassau County with 21 square miles to cover.

The transportation requests include purchasing a 22 passenger bus to replace one of the buses and add to the fleet. Additionally, they would like to hire a dispatcher to provide additional support for the transportation department as well as serve as a sub driver for unanticipated runs and make upgrades to the GPS routing system to provide more effective communication to parents regarding the bus status.

Adam Smith, a school board trustee, expressed some concerns about the projected budget. “They say inflation is 4.5%,” he said. “It’s not. It’s much higher. You can see it in your food bills and in your gas bills. I just can’t imagine that’s not going to hit us here as well.” O’Hare addressed this concern saying that there will be a budget transfer at the next meeting with increases in gas because of the “things happening in the world right now,” referring to the increase in gas prices nationwide.

The board also discussed how the district is slowly recovering from the pandemic. First, with the recent decision to make masks optional in schools. “It has been an incredible thing to witness,” said Michael Hynes, Port Washington superintendent. “We should all be very proud as to how we have transitioned. We will continue to move forward in a very positive direction.”