Districts get boost in state aid

Local school districts will be getting a boost in state aid, following numbers that were released last week upon the passage of the New York state budget.

Aid projections were withheld from the districts for months during state budget negotiations, which frustrated school officials who were working to develop their own budgets for the 2015-16 school year.

The Seaford School District is expected to receive about $11.6 million in state aid, a 6 percent increase over the current year. Administrators and the Board of Education are still finalizing the budget, which is expected to be adopted on April 16.

Wantagh will receive $15.4 million in state aid, an increase of 6.89 percent or about $993,000. According to Adriana Silver, the assistant superintendent for business, that is about $646,000 more than the district was counting on for next year.

Like in Seaford, Wantagh has yet to finalize its proposed budget for next year, so school officials can determine how to best use that unexpected revenue. The budget adoption is planned for April 16. “The Board of Education will decide how to use the additional funds at a future date,” Silver said.

Levittown will get an aid increase of about $750,000 to $51.8 million. The district already finalized its $201.8 million budget on March 25. But that number is just how much the district can spend, and revenues can be adjusted until August when the tax levy must be set.

Superintendent Dr. Tonie McDonald said her preference would be to use the additional state aid to offset money that would have been take from reserves, but the ultimate choice lies with the Board of Education. “We have options,” she said. “We have a little time to make that decision.”

For several years, the state has been taking money away from schools through the Gap Elimination Adjustment, which was implemented to help New York close its budget deficit. For next year, the GEA will be reduced by 40 percent.

While districts will get some money back, Levittown will still lose nearly $2.6 million through the GEA, Seaford $746,000 and Wantagh $1 million.

“It’s silly,” McDonald said. “The state has a surplus. I don’t know why they’re saying there is a gap.”

McDonald, who hopes to see the GEA eliminated altogether in the future, said that she is ultimately counting her blessings that the district is getting more aid than anticipated.