By:Andrew Coen
Gov. George Pataki has released his projected state aid for schools, and there-s a stark difference between the money that the two public school districts in the Five Towns would receive.
Under Pataki-s plan, the Hewlett-Woodmere district would receive $5,480,087, a 24 percent increase over its current state aid, while Lawrence, which is operating under a contingency budget, would be hit with an $85,556 decrease, 1 percent less in state aid, receiving a total allocation of $7,005,104.
Under the proposal, District 14 would receive the third-highest state aid increase in Nassau County, behind only New Hyde Park/Garden City Park, at 32 percent, and Plainedge, at 29 percent.
According to Hewlett-Woodmere school board President Richard Braverman, the proposed hefty increase could be related to the recent Hewlett High School renovations. There are several components that go into state aid, he said, and one of those components is building aid, and we just completed the high school renovation, and that might be included in the figure.
About $3 million of the $5,480,087 in aid will be earmarked for flex aid, which Pataki proposed three years ago as a way to reform the way the state allocates aid to public schools based on each school district-s previous payments.
Despite the large increase, Braverman is not celebrating, since the numbers could change. This is a preliminary state aid run, he said. Were it true, I would be delighted, but my history with state aid runs is, I will not believe it until I see the check.
Notwithstanding the increase that District 14 would receive under Pataki-s budget plan, Hewlett-Woodmere Superintendent Dr. Charles Fowler was critical of the way some of the numbers came out for other school districts. The state needs to dig much deeper to level the playing field, he said. Some of the higher-need school districts need more money because they don-t have the tax base.
Two of Long Island-s most troubled school districts, Roosevelt and Hempstead, both would see a 3 percent drop in state aid under Pataki-s plan.
Even though District 14 would receive 25 percent more state aid than Lawrence if the governor-s budget is approved, Fowler said the numbers for his district are still not that high. As a percentage, it-s a big number, but if you look at our aid compared to Lawrence-s, it-s a small number, he said.
Lawrence-s flex aid makes up $4,968,667 of the $7,005,104 in the state aid allocation proposed by Pataki. The next highest total is $983,122, earmarked for transportation costs, which, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business Sam Donato, has a lot to do with the large number of private-school students who are transported to other districts. We get aid for all the kids that go to school outside the district, said Donato.
The proposed building aid for the Lawrence district is $11,424, compared with $1,167,206 for Hewlett-Woodmere. According to Donato, the recent construction of the Lawrence High School roof was not included in this year-s aid.
Donato did not make a big deal of the wide disparity between the state aid proposed for Lawrence and neighboring Hewlett-Woodmere. The state aid formula is so convoluted that it is difficult to look at other districts without breaking down each item, he said.
Donato said he expects that state aid will increase for Lawrence. Generally, the governor-s proposals come in on the low side, he said. I-m not expecting that the numbers will go up much like they did the last couple years.
If this formula goes through, we will lose $85,000, but [the governor] has to go through the Assembly, and he has tended to not have much luck with that in the past, so we-re hopeful, said Lawrence Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons.
Lawrence school board President Frank Parise is also hopeful that the district will receive more money with the help of Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) and Senator Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre). As we continue to talk to our local officials, I believe they are going to do their best for us, said Parise. Harvey and Dean have been good to us in the past and will try and help get us more money.
Weisenberg said he-s not happy with the governor-s initial state aid proposal for the school districts he represents on the South Shore. We will not settle for anything less than the necessary money needed to maintain the quality education that our schools have needed in the past, he said.
Last May, the state Legislature overrode a veto by Pataki, giving Lawrence and Hewlett-Woodmere additional state aid over what the governor proposed. In Hewlett-Woodmere, Pataki had proposed cutting $687,421, but the Legislature restored $423,000, and Lawrence received $1,077,172 more than the initial total proposal by Pataki.
Since Pataki was elected governor in 1994, annual school aid has increased 48 percent, which raised New York-s school spending per pupil to the highest level of any state in the nation. In 2002-03, New York-s spending of $11,515 per pupil was 47 percent above the national average of $7,829 per pupil.
