Rockville Centre School budget up 3.72%

Following through on a promise to lower the preliminary budget, Rockville Centre School District administrators cut two teaching positions, trimming the proposed 2010-11 spending plan by $160,000, during the preliminary budget hearing on April 20.

In a 4-0 vote, the Board of Education adopted the proposed budget of $93.4 million — an increase of $3.3 million, or 3.72 percent, over the current spending plan. The hearing, in South Side High School's cafeteria, was packed with residents and teachers who have been attending school board meetings in a show of solidarity as their contract, set to expire on June 30, is being negotiated.

If the budget is approved by district residents in the May 18 vote, the tax levy, the total amount raised through property taxes, would rise by 4.75 percent. Assistant Superintendent Robert Bartels said that the average resident, with a home valued at $607,000 — down 14 percent from this year's average value of $707,000 — would see an increase of $444, assuming that state aid remains at its current level. Bartels said that the district is actually expecting a small increase in that aid, but has budgeted so that if the state does cut back on funding, the district is prepared to cover the shortfall.

Administrators have described the plan as a "preservation budget," which means that all existing programs and services will continue into next year. Bartels said that the proposal includes program and staffing increases to accommodate the expansion of the elementary foreign language program into fourth grade, music enrollment in both strings and band, and the needs of special education and English as a Second Language students. It also contains increases in attorney fees the district pays for litigation, mostly on out-of-district student placements, and the increased cost of postage for mailings to district residents.