Sewanhaka district contemplates separate budget scenarios

At the Sewanhaka Central High School District's March 14 board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Ralph Ferrie emphasized that the 2012-13 budget has been one of the most difficult for the district to craft. The district's next public meeting will be held on March 27 at 8 p.m., at Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park, pictured above.

Jackie Nash/Herald

New York State aid to local school districts, from 2009 to (projected) 2012.

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The Sewanhaka Central High School District Board of Education held its first 2012-13 budget workshop in February, unveiling three spending scenarios and stressing that the budget would likely exceed the 2 percent tax levy cap in order to avoid more than $3 million in cuts. Since that time, the board was notified that it would receive an unanticipated, additional $1 million in state and special education aid from prior school years, bringing the projected the tax levy increase for 2012-13 down, from 4.64 percent to roughly 4 percent.

The district’s first-draft budget, totaling $168.74 million, would require a tax levy of $132.65 million, a 4 percent increase over this year’s levy. But Superintendent Dr. Ralph Ferrie said that the district most likely would not propose the mandate-exceeding budget, since it probably would not be favored by taxpayers. So the board presented the less-costly alternatives.