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The Roslyn Times, Friday, April 8, 2016
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State payments aid school districts B y A dedamola A gboola
Roslyn School Superintendent for Business Joseph Dragone said Tuesday that the elimination of the Gap Elimination Adjustment by the state Legislature in this week’s state budget vote will bring Roslyn an additional $469,110 this year. He said the eliminated GEA meant the district will get an increase in state aid for the 2016-17 year and that in turn will keep taxes levied on residents low. He also said the district will be getting an additional $444,189 in building and building organization incen-
tives. “The GEA is one big piece of it but it is much bigger because we’re doing a lot of building projects,” Dragone said. Roslyn school approved a $9 million bond of the $41 million approved by voters in 2014 for capital projects the districts intends to undertake over the next several years. The Gap Elimination Adjustment was first introduced in 2010 to cover a huge budget deficit at New York public school’s expense. It’s purpose was to help the state fill its revenue short-
fall.
Dragone said the state aid along with other revenues generated by the district through transportation services and other avenues will help hold down the tax levy this year. “Once we see our entire financial run which we haven’t seen yet, we’ll give out specifics of what we should expect next year,” Dragone said Tuesday afternoon. But he said the proposed $104.5 million budget increase — up 0.70 percent from last year will not change. He said he will have a more detailed presentation at the board’s next meeting on Thursday April 7.
Gap elimination boosts school district budgets B y N oah M anskar The East Williston school district’s $57.4 million 2016-2017 budget will not come with a property tax increase for residents. The revised budget the school board approved Wednesday cut more than $245,000 in contingencies to flatten a proposed 0.47-percent tax levy increase and reduce the overall budget increase, board President Mark Kamberg said. “We always want it to be low, and this particular year the finances of it allowed us to get to a zero levy,” Kamberg said. Flattening the levy reduced the year-to-year increase in the overall
size of the budget from 1.83 percent, or about $1 million, to 1.4 percent, or about $791,000. Based on the district’s projected enrollment of 1,735 students next year, per-pupil spending will rise to $33,129 from $32,924 in 2015-2016. At the recommendation of the district’s Financial Advisory Committee, administrators will soon start a larger discussion about whether and how to further tighten contingencies after large surpluses in the past two years, Assistant Superintendent for Business Jacqueline Pirro said. It will be part of the process of developing a regular three-year financial forecast to better understand the dis-
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trict’s long-term finances in the climate of the state’s tax levy cap, Superintendent Elaine Kanas said. “The answers to those questions really grow out of that kind of study, and I think it’s a good thing to be doing that kind of study, but it’s important to look at it not just one year to one year, but over time,” she said. The school board also on Wednesday approved a ballot proposition to put up to $4.9 million in a capital reserve fund to eventually upgrade athletic facilities at all three of its schools, and a second to let the district spend up to $2 million of $3.5 million reserved last year for other improvements.
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The new reserve fund continues a trend in the district of saving instead of borrowing for large projects. If the athletic reserve is approved, the district will have saved $11.5 million in the last four years, more than the $11.2 million it currently owes in outstanding bonds, said Stephan Leccesse of the Financial Advisory Committee. “The capital reserve fund is really taking the place of the bond, creating more flexibility,” he said. The budget aims to continue building and creating curricular initiatives in district schools, administrators have said. It will support the third year of ProjContinued on Page 62
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