Programs, jobs appear to be safe

Though less than a month remains until the Board of Education is expected to adopt a school budget, East Meadow district officials are indicating that the spending plan will preserve both jobs and programs.
   
With anticipated revenue shortfalls, including the uncertainty of education aid from the struggling state government, many school districts across the state and Long Island are contemplating staff reductions and program cuts.

Louis DeAngelo, East Meadow’s superintendent of schools, described the district’s financial state as sound due to wise, methodical budgeting practices throughout the years. “We do not and have not spent frivolously or excessively, and we have invested and managed our resources wisely,” DeAngelo said. “Because of this, while it will take the support of all involved, we are poised well financially to continue to provide for the appropriate education of our East Meadow children in the most cost-effective manner.”
   
The current school budget, approved by voters last May, totals about $175 million. Despite reductions in state aid, the district managed to limit its increase in expenditures to a record-low 2.2 percent. According to DeAngelo, the district aims to meet — or even go below — that mark in the 2010-11 budget.
   
“We are in a good position,” said school board President Brian O’Flaherty. “But it didn’t happen overnight. The district knew what it had to do each year.”
   
While the district appears able to maintain four crucial elements of the spending plan that voters will focus on when voting on it — programs, staff, class sizes and a manageable tax increase — the outlook is not as rosy as it appears. “It’s not that we aren’t hurting,” DeAngelo said. “We are depending on everyone coming together.”
  
Awaiting the administration and the school board this summer are three expiring union contracts, with school monitors, administrators and teachers.