With the East Meadow School District’s budget season soon approaching, board members and administers are reflecting on constraints they face with the 2012-13 school year budget.
Board of Education President Joseph Parisi and Superintendent Louis DeAngelo addressed these concerns at Thursday evening’s communications meeting at the Parisi said that the board is committed to “working diligently” with the administration to provide “the best educational programs” within the boundaries or the state imposed two percent tax levy cap, as well as the district’s decreased revenue.
According to Newsday, East Meadow is slated to received $833,873 in state aid for the 2012-13 school year – a 2.53 percent increase from last year.
The district’s monthly business and finance report stated, “The Governor’s State Aid proposal will provide inadequate financial support for our school programs and unfortunately ignores the tax burden on community residents.”
The Board of Education will be receiving the superintendent’s proposed budget for the 2012-2013 school year on January 27, Parisi said. He added that they are “keenly aware of the financial limitations being placed on the district due to insufficient state aid and the state imposition of a two percent tax levy cap.”
“We at central administration have thoroughly reviewed each item line by line in order to be sure that we put forth a budget for the community which preserves our programs and staffing, hopefully in their entirety, and yet still meets the state proposed mandate of a two percent cap on tax levy for residents,” said DeAngelo.
A budget input session and hearing will be held on March 1 so that community members can voice their opinions and ask questions about the budget before the board adopts it on March 29. The formal budget presentation will be made on May 3 and this year’s vote will be held on May 15.
Last year’s 2011-12 received 2,117 yes votes and 1,055 no votes. That budget had a 1.62 percent tax levy and represented a 1.73 percent budget-to-budget increase over the previous year. Use of the district’s .
East Meadow resident Dawn Kennedy said that though the tax cap might make the process more difficult, she believes the board “will do the best that they can.”
“I think they are doing what they have to do and that’s it,” she continued.
“I have faith in them. As a taxpayer it is scary, but as a parent I have to put their education first,” said Mary Farrell regarding her two children who are students at .
Farrell added that the tax cap is “going to make it tight,” while trying to maintain the high standards the school district has in place.
“We have so much to be proud of in our district and while we have a strong financial base, wisdom must prevail in determining the utilization of our financial resources moving forward during these extremely difficult economic times,” DeAngelo said.
