CRONM attended the Budget Meetings on February 12, 2019, February 26, 2019, March 12, 2019 and March 26, 2019. Videos of those meetings can be viewed by clicking on the links below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAWFbfr7ZSI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOfVariog3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFYXiomk9iU&t=18s
The hand outs for the February 12, 2019, 26th and March 26, 2019 Budget meetings can be viewed by clicking below.
At the March 12th Budget meeting there was good resident attendance and many people came with questions prepared. Unfortunately, the meeting started 5 minutes late and the first 40 minutes was a presentation by Ms. Friedman on the highlights of our curriculum and programs. The presentation was a fantastic description of what our children receive during the school day and Ms. Friedman did a good job presenting it in an organized and creative way. To view the presentation click on link below.
However, there was general frustration in the audience that this left 15 minutes Mr. McDaid to present a 29 page budget document and answer questions. CRONM was left disappointed by a few aspects of this timing with following thoughts:
1) We don’t understand why Dr. Seniuk did not ask Ms. Freidman to show her presentation to our residents at the start of the school year during the regular BOE Meeting, so we know what programs our children will be receiving in school. In addition, members of CRONM have asked the BOE publicly, multiple times, for a work session on Programs. This information could have been shared at a scheduled session vs. the Budget meeting. We encourage every interested Resident to review the presentation and have asked that the BOE consider having Ms. Friedman present this at upcoming PTA meetings or an evening event so everyone has a chance to learn about what our children receive in school. She is extremely knowledgeable and a great asset to our District. This presentation show how are tax dollars are being spent on our children by District.
2) Residents who choose to become Budget committee members take time before the actual Budget meeting to review the documents and come prepared with questions. They are genuinely interested in reviewing the Budget and understanding how our tax dollars spent. It was unfair to ask Mr. McDaid to present 29 pages to the community and take questions in a 15 minute time frame. He did an amazing job on the Revenue and Capital components at the February 12th meeting and really took the time to answer questions with the full hour allotted. This session felt extremely rushed. We appreciate that the BOE pushed back their meeting to 8:15pm but even with the extra 15 minutes, it was simply not enough time to review how 87+% our Budget expenses are projected to be allocated for the 2019-2020 year.
3) In years past, 3 budget committee meetings were held at 7pm and 2 were on separate dates from the scheduled 8pm BOE meetings. This allowed ample time for presenting the Budget and answering questions. See 2016-2017 Calendar here: https://www.nmerrickschools.org/cms/lib/NY02208807/Centricity/Shared/2016-2017%20Budget/Lay%20Budget%20Meeting%201%20Feb%20292016%20%20Final%20Version.pdf
This year Dr. Seniuk decided to change Budget meeting times. We have 2 meetings at 7pm that allow for 1 hour each due to the 8pm BOE meeting afterwards. The District did schedule an additional 2 meetings to allow residents to ask more questions about the budget. Unfortunately, these two meetings were scheduled to start at 4 pm. CRONM asked Dr. Seniuk and the BOE multiple times, both publicly and via email, to change the time to the evening or during the school day since most Residents either work full time or care for their children (especially after school hours!). Our request was “taken under consideration” and ignored. In the end 2 residents (2 were CRONM) attended the February 26th 4pm meeting and 4 residents (2 were CRONM) attended the March 26th meeting.. No BOE members came to the March 26th meeting. The Superintendent did not come to either 4pm meeting. We hope that District will go back to the original format as it allowed for more Resident participation and better communication.
Now onto the actual Budget! CRONM understands the most important information that our residents want to take away from the Budget meetings is 1. Will tax cap be pierced? 2. Is the District spending our tax dollars on education and children?
The tax cap for 2019-2020 year will not be pierced if current budget is approved.
The total estimated revenue from our taxes for the 2019-2020 year is $33,107,869. Of that figure, $24,022,165 is spent on the program component of the budget. This includes teacher salaries, instructional classes, music, art, wings, parent university, textbooks, special ed, supplies, art supplies, equipment, computers, science supplies ect... The administrative costs which include salaries for Dr. Seniuak, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Carder, Mr. McDaid, Ms. Freidman, and administrative staff, total $4,403,367. This leaves $4,682,337 to be spent on custodians and capital improvement projects.
Budget increased total $615,557.00. Of that amount, $349,954.00 went to cover the cost in insurance increases for teachers, administration and custodians. 60% of the increase in budget will go to cover increase in insurance costs.
From CRONM’s perspective, below are some points to consider:
1) Administrative costs are increasing 4.69% for 2019-2020. Last year (2018-2019) they rose 4.3%. We are a 3 school district with generally flat enrollment. We question why a three elementary school district requires $4,403,367 to be spent on Administrative Costs. We’d much rather see the $372,000 increase in Administrative costs the past 2 years go toward new school programming, additional teachers, and increased services for our kids.
2) The Program component of the budget will increase 0.93%. We were excited to see an extra $15,000 in the budget toward extracurricular activities. The big theme within the numbers is that the District appears to be bringing more children back into our schools and provide them with the services they need. (ie: $81,000 decrease in tuition to other schools, $161,000 decrease to tuition to Boces, $244,000 increase in special ed salaries, $81,000 increase in contracted therapy services, etc). Information on students and their needs are private so we have to leave it at the numbers but it’s good to see that we are trying to provide children in our community with the option to stay within the district and meet their needs.
3) Health insurance for District employees continues to be a rising cost and challenge. While this is not just a North Merrick issue, the numbers are jarring. This year employee health insurance will cost $4,541,275 or ~ 13% of our 2019-2020 budget. In 2016-2017 employee health insurance cost $3,500,527. That’s a 29% and $1 million increase. Obviously we want our employees and their families to have high quality health insurance but this issue continues to be an “elephant in the room” challenge, especially if that run rate continues. CRONM has asked the BOE on several occasions how they plan to address this growing cost and there appears to be no plan in place.
A big thank you to Mr. McDaid for his work on the Budget and willingness to answer Resident questions both at these meetings and via email or office visits.
Overall, while most of the 2019-2020 budget is being spent on programs, we continue to watch and voice concern about the fiscal challenges that face our 3 school district and how the Board and District plans on addressing the expanding Administration and health insurance costs.
If anyone has questions regarding the budget, please feel free to contact Mr McDaid directly via email or phone.