Polls open Tuesday for budget votes

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Residents of the Lynbrook and East Rockaway school districts will head to the polls on Tuesday to vote on budgets and Board of Education races.

Lynbrook district officials have proposed an $85.2 million budget, and three trustees on the school board are running unopposed.

East Rockaway officials arrived at a $39.4 million budget proposal, and former longtime Athletic Director Dom Vulpis will vie with former high school PTA President Theresa Devlin for a vacant Board of Education seat.

In Lynbrook

The proposed Lynbrook budget is 3.29 percent larger than the current spending plan. It would bring with it a 2.4 percent increase in the tax levy — the total amount needed in taxes to meet expenses. That would raise the levy to $67.3 million.

At the elementary school level, the budget would expand the district’s one-to-one laptop program to third through fifth grades, introduce an after-school Math Olympiads Club and add foreign language clubs. At the middle schools, it would fund an Introduction to Technology class for seventh-graders and an eighth-grade option of either Earth Science or Living Environment. At the high school, it would create a family and consumer science course and expand the one-to-one tablet program to grades nine through 12.

“We are proud, once again, to present a proposed budget to our community that is within the state tax-levy limit, while still maintaining a high level of educational programming and extracurricular opportunities for our students,” Superintendent Dr. Melissa Burak said in a statement.

Board of Education Vice President Lesli Deninno, Secretary Robert Paskoff and Trustee David Yaker are all running unopposed. Paskoff has been on the board since 2006, while Deninno and Yaker were elected in 2015.

Deninno said she wants to continue to serve the community and to be a strong advocate for residents. “My priority is to ensure that our district is one that we are all proud of as it continues to put our students first,” she said.

Paskoff said that over the past 12 years he has been on the board, he believes the district has been trending upward. “My top priority would be to prepare our students for their future, not our past,” he said. “We need to stay on top of the meteoric changes in education today.”

Yaker said he understands the challenges that students and educational leaders face daily, and added that his top priority is balancing the needs of students with the tax burden residents face.

“It’s important to ensure that all of our children are getting the necessary tools to be successful in this competitive and technologically advanced world,” he said, “while at the same time taking care of those who have sacrificed and helped to make our community so great over the years.”

The ballot will also include propositions to use money from the district’s reserve funds at no additional cost to taxpayers. Proposition 2 will ask residents to earmark $502,700 to replace some older devices and install a walkie-talkie system at the high school that would enable administrators to communicate with one another. It would also allow the Lynbrook Police Department to listen in on conversations about security.

Proposition 3 would permit officials to spend $1.7 million to renovate bathrooms and locker rooms, replace the doors at South Middle School and install an elevator at Waverly Park Elementary School. Proposition 4 will ask residents to allow the district to create another reserve fund to renovate the buildings’ grounds.

For more information, visit Lynbrookschools.org and find finance and budget under the “District” tab.

In East Rockaway

The East Rockaway School District’s proposed budget includes a 3 percent increase over the 2017-18 spending plan, mostly because of added safety measures.

The enhancements would include additional security personnel in the district’s buildings and a guard on patrol in the evenings, when many clubs and teams meet at the high school. Reserve funds would also be used to install cameras, monitoring devices and vestibules at all buildings.

“Several years ago, our district engaged our community in the development of a five-year strategic plan, which outlined four major areas as a focus for growth and improvement,” Superintendent Lisa Ruiz said. “Each year, our budget enhancements are tied directly to our strategic plan. This year, we understandably put an added emphasis on security and allotting funds to make our buildings as safe and secure as possible for students, staff and visitors.”

The tentative budget includes a 2.32 percent increase in the tax levy. New additions that the budget would fund include Math Olympiad clubs in each of the district’s buildings; a Best Buddies Club for special education students at the high school; a new school bus; a new science curriculum for students in kindergarten through second grade; a new math curriculum for students in kindergarten through sixth grade; an additional 100 hours of pay for an athletic trainer to work with the sports teams; professional development initiatives; and the hiring of a state-mandated elementary school guidance counselor and an Engage Every Family coordinator. 

In addition to the budget, residents will cast their votes for Vulpis or Devlin to serve as John Giannotti Jr.’s successor on the Board of Education. Giannotti was elected to the board in 2012, but recently announced he would not return. Vulpis is running on a platform of transparency between the board and community, while Devlin said she believed she would bring a needed parent’s perspective to the board.

There will also be three propositions on the ballot. They will ask the public to approve the use of capital reserve funds to pay for building upgrades and fund districtwide technology projects. The final proposition requests voter permission to increase the capital reserve fund for building improvements by $7 million.

For more information, visit eastrockawayschools.org, and find the budget newsletter under the “Board of Education” tab.