By Stephanie Mariel Petrellese

The Garden City Board of Education and residents scrutinized several instructional components of the 2009/2010 budget at a work session held on Tuesday evening. The session focused on Pupil Personnel Services (PPS), instructional and administrative technology and athletics.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen's proposed budget is $95,340,587, which is .88 percent higher than last year. The projected tax levy increase (with STAR) is 2.48 percent.

Dr. Feirsen emphasized that the budget is still a work in progress. The tax levy increase in particular is expected to change since the amount of state aid the district will receive has yet to be determined.

PPS includes special education as well as health, guidance, psychological and social work services, speech and hearing services, home instruction and adaptive physical education. Dr. Feirsen explained that special education is the most regulated aspect of public education and is governed by many federal and state regulations.

As of February 13, there were 527 students with disabilities: 446 in district, 22 out of district and 8 placed by a parent in a non-public school and 51 non-residents placed by a parent in a non-public school. Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that took effect in 2007, all children in the school district, regardless of their district of residence, are required to be serviced by whatever school district the private or parochial school is located in. This means Garden City is required to service a significantly larger pool of students.

The state and county are currently pushing legislators to shift 15 percent of the cost for preschool special education to school districts, which would mean the district will have to pay an additional $300,000. The state and counties currently fund a significant portion of this education and school districts are responsible for coordinating the services. Dr. Feirsen said he does not expect legislators to actually vote on the issue during this term. Even though some school districts have included this cost in their budget projections for 2009-10, Feirsen said Garden City's budget does not reflect the shift. "Basically we think it's not a done deal," he said.

Dr. Feirsen recommends adding one full-time equivalent position in special education, most likely at the primary level. The number of psychologists, speech/language pathologists and social workers will remain unchanged.

The superintendent would like to enhance the co-teaching model and the Extended School Day program districtwide. Other initiatives include refining the transition services process and vocational programs; monitoring special education service delivery models and student progress; collaborating with the guidance department regarding vertical and horizontal articulation; and promoting pre-referral support in the primary schools, for example, occupational therapy consultation in kindergarten. Dr. Feirsen said the district will continue to provide staff development to ensure faculty and paraprofessional staff members are kept current on legal changes and the most recent trends in special education and related fields.

The district tries to keep costs down by first trying to adapt the general education program before a student is referred for special education services. A substantial transportation expense is saved by trying to return students who are placed in programs out of the district. Garden City also accepts students from other districts, which generates revenue from tuition.

In the area of technology, Dr. Feirsen proposes decreasing the hours of a technology staff developer and reducing the number of audio-visual specialists from two to one. Major initiatives include installing 30 SMART Boards in the elementary schools; continuing with the infrastructure upgrade of switches, routers and servers in all schools; upgrading the library computers and circulation software in all schools; increasing the functionality of the parent portal; upgrading the high school art lab and middle school math lab hardware and software; completing phase 2 of the disaster recovery plan by virtualizing all district servers; and continuing to provide high-quality staff development.

By the end of this current school year, SMART Boards will be found in 90 percent of the classrooms at the middle and high schools, and 40 percent of elementary classrooms. Each primary school has a mobile SMART Board.

Turning to athletics, the number of intramurals will be reduced. Dr. Feirsen consulted Nancy Kalafus, the district's director of physical education and athletics, and at the high school they have proposed eliminating winter martial arts, floor hockey and two sessions of volleyball, and at the middle school, they have proposed eliminating a double session of roller hockey and tennis. Dr. Feirsen explained that middle school students had to take a bus to Community Park for roller hockey and tennis, so it is more costly than the other intramural programs, which are offered on-site by the district.

For several years, the school district has been allowing public comments and questions at budget work sessions. Julie Soussis asked the school board to provide more information on the district's Web site, including contracts and budgets. She suggested trustees look at the New York City's Dept. of Education Web site as a model. School Board President Colleen Foley said she has seen their site, but found data to be outdated. She did agree that Garden City's Web site needs more information and said the issue will be explored.

Morton Yuter, a longtime resident who regularly attends both Village and school board meetings, said the Village is currently struggling to reduce a proposed 11.49 percent tax increase. The majority of capital projects have been deferred. He suggested that the school district work harder to reduce the budget increase from .88 to zero, and perhaps defer capital projects. He also said they should do a better job negotiating contracts with employees.

"I think all of us on the Board are quite sensitive to what's going on in the community with the economy right now," Foley responded. "We live here, too, and we're going through it as well."

Foley is against the idea of deferring capital projects. "I lived here for many years when that was done in the school district, and it resulted in the buildings being in turmoil," she said.

According to Foley, the last bond, which residents passed in 1998 for $37,856,000, was used to bring the buildings up to code. "I would hate to think that we would embark on that path again," she said. "But having said that, we have asked this administration to come to us with only what they need with an eye toward economy, with an eye toward cutting programs or costs that won't affect the overall program to the point where we're set back."

A regular work session is scheduled for March 10th at 8:15 p.m. in the high school cafeteria.