Perhaps inspired by the heavy rain pounding down upon the glass ceiling of the Garden City High School library at Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Garden City Board of Education, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen felt it appropriate to use a water analogy during his discussion of the non-instructional components of the 2010/2011 budget.

“I’m not going to stand up here and tell you this is a great budget, you’re going to see all kinds of program enhancements, you’re going to see wonderful things happen in the next year ahead,” he said. “This is a treading water budget, at best, designed to get us through some very difficult economic times and still maintain the support of the community....We’re not going to make a lot of progress, but at least we’re not going to go backwards.”

As he did two weeks ago when he initially presented the budget to the public, Dr. Feirsen emphasized that administrators will be making “incredibly difficult choices” this year. Many compromises will be made, he added, which will become even more apparent when the instructional component of the budget is presented at the next budget work session on Tuesday, March 2 at 8:15 p.m. in the high school library.

School Board President Colleen Foley solemnly warned that there will also be reductions in other budget areas. “I don’t think any one of us wants to make a reduction anywhere,” she said. “But there is a reality that we have to pass a small budget, and if we don’t, those things may not be there anyway.”

State law requires the school budget to be divided into three parts: administrative, program/instruction and capital. Garden City’s proposed budget allots 74.46 percent to program/instruction, 14.04 percent to capital needs and 11.5 percent to administration.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen’s proposed budget is $98,275,256, which is 3.21 percent higher than last year. The projected tax levy increase (with STAR) is 4.52 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. Albert Chase, assistant superintendent for business and finance, said at the Feb. 9th budget work session that Garden City will see a state aid decrease of nearly 13.29 percent, which would total $602,933, if Gov. David A. Paterson’s budget is passed.

The district has been able to keep costs down by instituting strong controls on overtime, especially in the area of custodial services; expanding the use of cooperative bids and participation in consortia; reducing print advertising for staff recruitment and adopting more environmentally friendly initiatives to reduce energy consumption; expanding the district’s automated attendance system to provide more efficient data tracking and controls; and reviewing all bus routing to “fine tune” the system and increase efficiency. As it also did last year, this year’s proposed budget includes use of worker’s compensation reserves to help alleviate taxpayer burden.

The administrative budget includes the Board of Education, central administration, school community relations, plant operation and maintenance, central data processing and special items such as insurance and BOCES administrative charges. Central administration includes the offices of the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Assistant Superintendent for Business & Finance and the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel.

The district’s cost for employee benefits, which comprise a substantial part of the administrative budget, are expected to increase by 11.84 percent next year to total $21,831,586. The change from this year’s budget totals more than $2.3 million. Employee retirement benefits fall under two programs: the Teachers’ Retirement System and the Employee Retirement System. The district is fully accrued in both programs. Employee benefits also include social security, pension, health and dental insurance, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance and compensated absences (teachers who are retiring are compensated financially for unused sick days.)

Chase said that $1.8 million of the increase can be attributed to a significant rise in employee and teacher retirement system contributions, which the district is mandated to make. The teacher retirement system contribution has risen 43 percent, and Chase said they have seen a similar increase with the state employee retirement system, which covers non-teaching and non-certificated personnel.

Chase explained that the contributions have increased because the pension systems invest their funds primarily in the stock market, bonds and other financial instruments. Just like almost everyone else, their investments are earning less so they had to raise their rates.

He expects another rate increase next year, but then hopes things will level off. “That’s really something we have absolutely no control over. At times when it goes down, it’s good, but at times when it goes up it’s really a terrible thing because those are the dollars that are not going to increase the educational program.”

Under debt service, the district is projected to carry $3,924,391 in debt, which is comprised of interest payments on tax anticipation notes and principal and interest payments on outstanding bond issuances. This is a slight decrease from 2009/10 of .22 percent. The district will begin paying for the new bond in 2011. On October 27, residents approved a $36.5 million bond referendum. Work will now proceed on improvements at all nine of the district’s buildings.

As that work begins, Chase announced that the money annually allotted for capital projects will be decreased from $1.2 million to $700,000, a move which already ignited some controversy.

Chase explained that the bond was one reason why administrators believe the cut will be easier to deal with. “Unfortunately, because of budget constraints, because of the fact that the budget is very tight and we want to present a budget that is acceptable and reasonable, we made the hard decision to reduce that line by $500,000,” Chase said. “It’s not something we feel is good in the long run, but right now having a bond that is doing a lot of the work that we need to get done in the district, we’re hopeful that this number will tide us over until better times come.” He said he hopes the district will eventually get the allotment up to $1.2 million once the economy improves, but he added that it will have to be done gradually.

School Board Vice President Barbara Trapasso expressed concern that building maintenance will suffer with the $500,000 cut. “I don’t want this to hurt us,” she said. “We all own these buildings, and we all have to take care of them.” Garden City resident Morton Yuter also asked the Board not to make the reduction.

School Board President Colleen Foley responded: “We’re looking at a very difficult economic situation here. It’s great to hear people want to have things put back into the budget. That would be a wonderful thing to hear as long as that want follows ‘I will be willing to pay for it at voting time.’ That would be the second thing that would be very good for us to hear: What the community wants to pay for, and what they’re not willing to pay for so we can make very good choices on how to do this.”

The capital projects that are proposed to be included in the 2010/11 budget are: at the high school, the installation of a new Ansul fire suppression system and a security camera system along outside building perimeter; at the middle school, the continued replacement of student lockers; at Stratford, replacement of computer tables; at Hemlock, replacement of hallway flooring throughout the building; and at Locust, replacement of selected student furniture. District-wide capital projects include continued flooring and sidewalk replacement, replacement of older computer switches to improve speed and connectivity, the purchase of a 16-foot mower and vision testing machines. The district would also like to carry out a Building Conditions Survey, which is mandated every five years by the state education department.

Under transportation, Dr. Feirsen stressed that it is important to stay on target with the scheduled replacement of school buses and other vehicles to replace an aging fleet. The district usually purchases three 66-passenger buses a year at a cost of $140,000 each.

However, this year Dr. Feirsen recommends only purchasing one bus, which would save $280,000. “This is one of the clear ways that we’ve spoken to the Board to this point about how we are trying to reduce the impact of the budget on the taxpayer,” he said.

Chase stressed that even though they do have some 12-year-old buses in their fleet, all of the vehicles are safe and subject to random inspection by the state Dept. of Transportation.

School Board Vice President Trapasso said she does not want to see the district fall back on their goal of purchasing three buses annually. She asked if the district has considered selling their fleet and outsourcing transportation.

Chase explained that it would cost a little more to outsource. The downsides: drivers will not be familiar, and the district will not own the buses. Trapasso said she likes the fact that parents know their bus drivers, and have often seen them transport several children of varying ages within the same family.

The district is participating in a transportation consortium with other districts to help bring down costs. After school trips are combined whenever possible.

This year 255 field trips have been scheduled. The district hopes to one day be able to have the technology to provide students with virtual field trips that will enable them to see places in other parts of the world and country.

Dr. Feirsen presented some interesting transportation facts: 3,176 students are transported to district schools and 632 students are transported to other schools. The district transports students to 15 schools outside the district and private contractors transport to 32 other schools.

The public has several upcoming opportunities to comment and ask budget-related questions. Besides the regular Board work sessions and meetings, there will be a public hearing on the budget on Tuesday, May 11. Garden City residents will be asked to vote on the budget on Tuesday, May 18. For a complete list of budget sessions, visit www.gardencity.k12.ny.us.