By Judy Rattner
Rockville Centre was in for a substantial cut in funding of $450,000. But under the 2008-09 New York state budget that was passed last week, the district will instead receive a healthy 11.3 percent increase in state aid over the current year.
Rockville Centre schools are slated to receive $8.7 million from the state next year, nearly $811,000 more than in the current budget and $1 million more than what was proposed in former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's Executive Budget late last year.
The budget increases funding to Nassau and Suffolk county school districts by a total of $236 million - $121 million more than what Spitzer originally proposed.
At a rally on a blustery Saturday afternoon in early March, some 1,500 school administrators, Board of Education members, teachers, parents and students called for Long Island to receive its "fair share" of state school aid. That gathering, at the Ellsworth W. Allen Park in Farmingdale, organized by Long Island's Senate majority delegation and spearheaded by Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R- Rockville Centre), was attended by Dr. William Johnson, superintendent of Rockville Centre schools, and school board members Lorrie Brady and Mark Masin.
At the time, Long Island was due to receive only 8 percent of the state's total school aid despite the fact that it educates about 17 percent of the state's public school students. "Fair share" was the ralliers' oft-repeated refrain.
Under the new budget adopted in Albany, Long Island will now receive about 13 percent of state school aid, consistent with previous years. "This state school aid package is a tremendous victory for Rockville Centre," said Skelos. "The Rockville Centre school district will receive over $1 million more than it expected under the governor's budget proposal. This money must be used to cut our school property taxes."
Assemblyman Bob Barra (R-Lynbrook) added, "This budget process has been intensive, but the results are a tremendous victory for Rockville Centre taxpayers. We have worked hard to bring these record numbers home, and our children and families are the real winners."
Referring to the local delegation of state representatives, the district's assistant superintendent for business, Robert Bartels, said, "They did a terrific job this year and last year. They really came through."
In this month's "Your Schools" brochure, mailed to every resident in the district, the administration outlined a proposed budget increase of 4.2 percent for 2008-09. Pointing to the then uncertain outcome of state aid proposals, the district wrote that "the tax levy increase will likely be approximately one percentage point higher than the budget because there are no other revenue sources to offset the increase." But now the situation has changed, and the school board will decide whether to use the new revenue to reduce the tax levy or to reverse cuts in staffing and programs.
The Board of Education was scheduled to hold its preliminary budget meeting on Wednesday night. It will hold a final hearing, after which no changes can be made, on May 6. Voters will go to the polls May 20 to vote on the budget proposal and to fill two seats on the school board. Residents will also vote on EXCEL, a state capital projects allocation that would fund up to $1.7 million in school construction projects at no expense to taxpayers.
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