By Staff

May 13, 2021: The Bronxville School Board of Education met on May 6, 2021.  Below are the key items discussed in the meeting.

Voter Proposition

Bronxville School Board President, Arleen Thomas, began the meeting by noting that the board had received a voter proposition related to the May 18th election regarding having a permanent board seat for a student on the Board of Education. She indicated that the board is "very interested in the notion that is embedded in this proposition" and will be discussing it over the summer. However, she also said that the proposition needed to come in 30 days before the Annual Meeting and needed to have a minimum number of signatures. Those criteria were not met. As a result, the Board rejected the proposition.

Budget Discussion

Dan Carlin, Assistant Superintendent for Business, presented the proposed 2021-22 budget that goes up for a public vote on May 18, 2021.

The school's proposed budget is $50.6 million, resulting in a tax levy increase of 1.69%, which is below the tax cap levy of 1.71%.

Approximately 75% of the school's budget is salaries and benefits. The budget includes a $595.4k (5.8%) increase in benefits due to increases in the Teacher Retirement System Rates (TRS) and Employee Retirement System Rates (ERS) and increased health benefits costs.

The budget also includes a $284k (4.7%) reduction in contractual costs primarily due to the School's decision to drop its flood insurance, quoted at around $500k for the coming year. The school and village have undertaken significant flood mitigation efforts in recent years, including installing five pumps and connecting the Meadow Avenue drains to the pump system. If there were a flood event in the coming year, the losses would be funded by the school's reserves and fund balance. The school could also borrow if needed.

New York State Aid is about 5% of the Bronxville School Budget and is budgeted at $430k for 2021-22 or 16.3% below the current year. This is expected to be a one-year reduction. Finally, the school is budgeting an allocation of $800k from its fund balance for the 2021-22 budget, most of which will likely come from the current year surplus.

You can see the budget here.

Construction and Other Updates

Dan Carlin also reported that the School's construction project is "down to completion of the Atrium Lobby," which is expected to occur over the next couple of weeks. The school is still seeing supply delays in punch-list items like doors, hardware, and other specialty items.

The next project in the school building is replacing the hallway flooring on the 34th floor, which requires asbestos abatement and replacement of tiles. This will take place over the summer.

With respect to other updates, Bronxville High School Superintendent, Roy Montesano, reported that there had been no Covid-19 cases in the school in the past couple of weeks.  He also said that the Elementary Principal search was underway and that the first round of interviews started this week.

Photo by A. Warner