Levittown BOE Presents Second 2013-14 Budget Draft

Story by Chris Boyle

The news coming out of Levittown schools’ second public presentation of its work-in-progress 2013-14 budget may come as a relief to many parents thus far, despite the financial hardships faced by many schools on Long Island, there will be likely be no cuts next year.

“There are no programs cuts at this point in time,” said Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance Mark Flower. “There might be some staffing adjustments based on enrollment, but not based on budgetary reasons.”

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This evening’s presentation, led by Flower, focused on the district’s instructional budget, whereas the previous one had concentrated on Administrative costs. Flower said that Levittown is trying to squeeze as much from every penny that they have when it comes to sustaining the quality of their educational programs.

“One of the things that I think is important to look it is the value we’re getting for that money,” he said. “The message here is that we offer a quality product on a very cost-competitive basis compared to our neighboring districts, and we’re at least twice the size of them as well.”
The current draft of the 2013-14 budget comes in at $195,590,207, a 2.94 percent change that amounts to a $5,593,626 increase over last year’s budget, which amounted to $189,996,581.

The overall breakdown of that amount into its three main components is as follows- Instructional Programming, the biggest cost, is $166,235,538; Administrative, which is $12,119,495; and Capital, which is $17,235,173.

The overall 2013-14 Instructional budget has only seen moderate increases over the previous year’s spending plan in areas such as Regular and Special Education, Extra-Curricular Activities, and Interscholastic Athletics. Actual budgetary decreases were seen in areas such as Transportation, Occupational Education, and Computer Instruction.

One of the biggest financial hurdles for Levittown to overcome next year, according to Flowers, are the rising costs of employee benefits hitting the district, which account for a whopping 15 percent, or $6,404,786, increase over last year.

“Pension contributions have gone up, Social Security has gone up, and Health Insurance will be costing us over $18 million next year,” he said. “Those health insurance costs include 674 retired employees that we pay a portion of their health care costs.”

The third budget presentation held by the Levittown school district is scheduled to be held on April 3, and Superintendent Dr. James Grossane invited all residents to turn out and get involved.

“Tell your friends, and have them tell their friends,” he said. “The board will be going over the budget line by line, and I request that you join us...it would be greatly appreciated.”