When budget talks began over the winter, the district was in a rare position where a 15-year bond was coming off the books, giving the board $3 million to repurpose toward programs, teaching positions and other education initiatives. Now, instead of restoring five full-time teaching positions in each of the five main subject areas, those positions would become part-time, Heidenreich said. Also, there will be fewer electives than were included in the March adopted budget. The number of elective courses offered will be determined by student interest.

“To have the state come in at the 11th hour and throw a monkey wrench into all of the planning that we’ve done is disheartening,” Heidenreich said. “This is a game changer.”
Board members did not want to adopt a new budget at Tuesday’s meeting because they wanted to give residents a chance to hear about the latest developments and have an opportunity to provide feedback. The board chose April 8 because the companies that print information about the budget for the district need time to process the order by the late-April deadline.

The amount of the money taxpayers would see in a rebate is unknown at this time, Heidenreich said, but estimated it wouldn’t be much since the district’s tax levy is .04 percent.

Once the board adopts its new budget, the public will head to the polls on May 20.

Bowling motion voted down
The board also rejected a motion, 5-4, which would have funded a scaled down bowling program for each of the three high schools. Trustee Tony Iadevaio raised the motion to restore the bowling teams with five boys and five girls from each school and use one bus to transport them to practices and matches.

The team was cut during last budget season as part of $2.65 million in reductions.
The district is still awaiting word from Nassau BOCES on whether it can form one team from the three schools to compete, at which time a new discussion may be raised, pending any “bullet aid” the state awards the district in the coming months.