Voters approve school budget

Voters in the Rockville Centre school district have passed the 2012-13 school budget of $97.3 million. In unofficial results Tuesday night, the spending plan received 1,940 votes, more than twice the number of votes — 888 — that were cast against it.

Residents also returned Liz Dion and Mark Masin — both of whom ran unopposed — to terms on the Board of Education.

Dion, an information technology consultant who has served one term on the board, garnered 1,911 votes. Masin, president of American Trans-Coil, a military communications manufacturer in Oyster Bay, has been a school board trustee since 2003. He received 1,847 votes.

The public library’s budget of $3.2 million, which, like the school spending plan, stays within New York state’s mandated tax-levy cap, also passed, with 1,861 “yes” votes and 740 “no’s.” Voters returned Eileen Burke-Bucaria, who has served for 12 years on the library’s Board of Trustees, to another term, with 1,995 votes, while Andrea Maher, a newcomer to the board, was overwhelmingly elected in a write-in vote that was not yet tallied as the Herald went to press.

“I’d like to thank the community for their continued support of the school district,” said Dion, the school board president. “And as for me, I’d like to thank the community for the ability to continue to serve in this challenging and rewarding position.”

“We’re very grateful that the community overwhelmingly supported our budget that is continuing to provide services and programs to our kids,” said Masin, who served as the school board’s vice president this year.

School Superintendent Dr. William Johnson said, “We have a wonderful board that, from my perspective, has been great to work with. More importantly today, thank you to the Rockville Centre community for supporting our investment in the future of our children.”

The district reported that there were a total of 2,907 votes cast on a day that saw periods of heavy rain. The overall turnout was down from 3,480 in 2011, and from the total of 4,616 votes cast in the May 2010 election.