Schools

Yorktown Adopts School Budget, Maintains Programs, Cap Limits

Yorktown schools are receiving a total of $878,000 in state aid, of which board members are giving $353,000 back to the taxpayers to reduce the tax rate.

Yorktown school board members adopted Monday night a $93,992,000 spending plan for the 2013-2014 school year.

The originally proposed tax rate increase of 2.52 percent will now drop down to 2.17 percent in Yorktown after school district officials announced the district has received an additional $878,000 from the state.

The $93.6 million budget, approved by the board, represents a 1.97 percent increase from this year’s budget. The tax levy, the portion of the budget funded by property taxes, is a 2.15 percent increase over last year's tax levy, Assistant Superintendent of Business Tom Cole said. The allowable tax cap is 3.74 percent, Cole said.

Taxpayers will have a chance to vote on the 2013-2014 Yorktown Central School District's proposal on May 21.

Since receiving the additional state aid money, school district administrators said they are giving $353,000 back to taxpayers to reduce the tax rate. The rest of the $525,000 will be used to offset the following costs:

  • $155,000 of "lost revenue" from a French Hill Elementary School tenant.
  • $130,000 for salaries and benefits for special education teachers. The district has been made aware of new students to the school district with special education needs.
  • $130,000 to be put into a contingency fund for elementary school teachers for potential student enrollment increases that may arise from a new 26-unit development that is being built across from the Staples Plaza in Yorktown and will open in the fall. School officials said they believe that development might have some impact on school enrollment. 
  • Restorations of 2.4 positions worth $40,000 each – an English language learner position and an enrichment position in the middle school. 
  • $30K for additional evaluation services to comply with an unfunded mandate.
For the 2013-2014 school year, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ralph Napolitano said class size guidelines will remain constant and staff reductions will be consistent with enrollment decline. He said the school athletic program, clubs and organizations will remain intact, as will the music program on all levels. Ed Ciffone, a longtime Yorktown resident who was the only one who spoke out during the public comment section of Monday night's meeting, questioned the raises of the superintendent of schools and the assistant superintendents.  According to school budget documents, the Superintendent of Schools salary for the 2013-2014 is $264,355 – up from last year's salary of $257,245. And the Assistant Superintendent's salary for the 2013-2014 school year is $202,520 – up from last year's $196,920. The Yorktown Central School District is the fourth largest school district out of 46 districts and the sixth lowest in superintendent salaries, Cole said.  "We have two of the best assistant superintendents and one of the best superintendents in all of Westchester [County] and to me the state Yorktown school board member Anthony D'Alessandro said. "So we are lucky to pay them what we pay them." Yorktown school board member Thomas Donatelli sides with D'Alessandro and said that each year pension and health care costs are going up and teachers are given step increases each year. "To somehow try to blame the salaries of the three superintendents on the tax rate in Yorktown [...] is unreasonable and unfair," he said. Residents of the school district will go to the polls on May 21 at Mohansic Elementary School. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.  __ Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter | Sign up for our newsletter


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