The Great Neck School District is proposing a 2024-2025 draft budget which features approximately a 5% increase from last year’s budget.

The district’s budget for the current school year is set at $272,138,300. The new preliminary draft budget for the 2024-2025 school year is set at $ 285,916,013,marking approximately a $13,777,713 rise.

Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance John O’Keefe provided the budget presentation for the school district’s 2024-2025 budget Tuesday night at the Great Neck Board of Education meeting.

The presentation highlighted the district’s newest draft budget, which stays within the tax levy limit.

The district expects the final budget to be several million less, O’Keefe said.

Superintendent Kenneth R. Bossert spoke highly of the board’s support in developing a draft budget that not only stays within the tax levy cap but also allows the district to preserve staffing and enhance programs that benefit students.

While the state has implemented a 2% tax cap on the budget, the proposed tax levy increase amounts to 3.26% for the 2024-2025 budget which is lower than the 2023 actual CPI of 4.12%.  This number can be changed before it is adopted.

The 2023-2024 tax levy amounted to $229,498,923 while the newly presented tax levy would amount to $236,985,206- an increase of $7,486,283.

The Great Neck School District is estimated to receive $ 15,289,918 in 2024-2025 under Gov. Kathy Hochul’s state aid proposal. This is a 2.83% increase from the district’s adopted state aid last year of $14,869,046.

Specifications on expenditures and the proposed draft budget features can be viewed on the district’s website under the 2024-2025 budget information tab. O’Keefe said he expects the draft budget number to go down once state aid is finalized and the budget can more closely match its revenues.

If the district adopts its current draft budget it will need a simple majority vote.

The board will reconvene on April 18. to finalize the draft budget. An official budget hearing will be held on May 8.  The annual budget vote will be on May 21 from 6. a.m. to 9 p.m. at EM Baker, Lakeville, Saddle Rock, and South High Schools.

In other district news, the board approved a motion to name the South High School baseball field in memory of former Superintendent of Schools Teresa Prendergast, who died suddenly in June 2023.

She will be honored at a memorial ceremony to be held in late May 2024 with a plaque in her memory. In addition, there will be a faculty charity softball game to raise funds for Teresa’s scholarship, which her family started in her memory.

Food trucks will be present with a percentage of proceeds going back to the scholarship fund.

“It will undoubtedly be very meaningful and a lasting legacy to Teresa’s memory and all her contributions to the district and hopefully something that will mean something to her family as well,”  said board President Rebecca Sassouni.

The board also conducted a first review and approval for a policy for alcohol consumption by students to be placed on the agenda for the next board of education meeting with the possibility of adoption.

The policy entails the use of a breathalyzer test on students suspected of being under the influence of alcohol.

“This gives us a tool that we hope serves as a deterrent for students to make sure that when they’re at school they do so in a sober capacity so they can enjoy the wonderful memories we hope to create with them”, said Bossert.

The Great Neck Board of Education will convene again on April 18.