School Budget Vote Set for Tuesday

With the East Meadow School District budget vote set for Tuesday, school officials are urging locals to head out to the polls and take part.

“Our budget as proposed maintains all of our existing programs and class sizes as they are,” Superintendent Louis DeAngelo said. “It avoids any excess of staff. I really do believe that this is a sound budget, and in my heart of hearts I think the community will feel that way too.”

Residents can vote for the proposed school and budgets at their local elementary school from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, and the results will be tallied at the and revealed on East Meadow Patch a short time later.

The , which on April 4, includes a $3,579,051 increase in expenditures (or 1.97 percent), with increases in programming accounting for more than 77 percent of the money.

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The district $36,446,202 for the 2012-13 school year in state aid, which is a bump of more than $1.6 million from last year. However, more than $1.8 million is allocated to State Building Aid, which cannot be used for general instruction.

"It’s for past projects that you have bonds for," Assemblyman Thomas McKevitt, R-East Meadow, said. "It can’t go towards general instruction. It goes more towards physical costs."

Compared to throughout , DeAngelo added that he's proud of the work that's been done to not make any major cuts.

“I think if you take a look at the paper, and you certainly will in the next couple of weeks, you will see what other districts are experiencing,” DeAngelo said. “We’re very fortunate here in East Meadow.”