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Schools

Rocky Point Board of Ed Adopts $69.5 Million Budget

The Rocky Point Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt a budget of $69,509,578 Wednesday night.

The Rocky Point Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt a budget of $69,509,578 for the 2011-2012 fiscal year Wednesday night during a meeting in the library of the

The budget adopted was the same one . It represents a 3.97 percent increase from the 2010-2011 budget. The budget also includes an estimated tax levy increase of 4.93 percent, but no significant cuts were necessary. The board considered this quite the victory when taking into account the nearly $2 million the district lost in state aid.

“I’m proud of our budget because we were able to deal with it effectively and come out with a reasonable budget with full maintenance of all programs, academic and co-curricular,” Superintendent Dr. Michael Ring said after the meeting.

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Dr. Ring said that they used two major methods to avoid big cuts; the reallocation and redeployment of resources. He explained that this basically means moving money from areas that do not need it to areas that do, as well as moving staff from one building to another depending on where more or less staffing is needed (i.e. combining classes). He said this is what they called “stretching our resources.”

“It’s doing more with what we have so that we can take some of what we have and move it to do other things because we don’t have new money to do those other things,” he explained.

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The reallocation and redeployment, combined with the use of the $2.6 million fund balance, $1.3 million of restricted reserves and $701,000 of federal education jobs funds- according to the budget on the Rocky Point website- results in minimal reductions and, according to Ring, whatever reductions the district has “will come from scheduling.”

The meeting began at 7:22 p.m. and consisted mostly of votes from the board on several different issues. However, some attendees were left with questions.

“I don’t think [the budget] was explained properly,” said Mary Heely, President of the Rocky Point PTA and candidate for the upcoming Board of Education election. “I would like to have seen a better explanation of how that money is being spent, and from the last meeting and this meeting I don’t feel it has been adequately explained to the community.”

Although the board did not go into detail on Wednesday night, they did explain that the budget they adopted was the exact same one they had proposed the month before and all the specifics and numbers were available on the website.

The meeting adjourned at 8:22 p.m. with one other highlight being a grievance brought forth by Jerry Vessichio, a coach of the Ward Melville track team but local resident, about the Rocky Point track team’s need for pole vault mats.

Without the mats, he explained that when the track team competed at home, they would immediately start nine points down due to their inability to compete in the pole vault. It was a grievance he approached the board with a year ago but, with a change in athletic directors, it was never addressed. However, Ring and the board made it clear that they would address the issue.

A public budget hearing will be held at Frank J. Carasiti on Tuesday, May 10 and the budget vote and board elections will take place on Tuesday, May 17 in the gymnasium.

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