State to Restore Some Aid to Local Schools

After New York State's drastic cuts in school aid last year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is restoring some funds back to districts, including Bayport-Blue Point and Sayville.

The Sayville School District is projected to receive an increase of $606,622 (not including building and transportation aid) in New York State aid for the 2012-13 school year, according to Cuomo's proposed budget announced on Tuesday.

Including building and transportation, the additional state aid totals to $833,003, according to Superintendent Walter Schartner.

But are the additional funds enough to help the district deal with the new 2 percent tax cap?

"Absolutely," says Schartner, "it’ll put the budget we proposed under the cap."

Sayville's Assistant Superintendent for Business John Belmonte delivered a slide show presentation Jan. 12 outlining the proposed $85,674,961 budget, which represents a 4.76 percent budget percentage increase and a 4.77 percent proposed increase on the tax rate.

With all the talk about the state tax cap, districts have yet to receive information that is crucial to determining the cap.

"The biggest piece of this is we haven’t been given an actual concrete formula for the calculation for the tax cap," Schartner said. "What we've presented is an estimate based on what we think it's going to look like, that could change, we don’t know."

Schartner said he would have liked to see even more funds come through, but appreciates that some aid has been restored.

"We're just happy that the state has come across with some additional state aid," he said. "It would’ve been nicer if it was the 4-percent increase he [Gov. Cuomo] promised but we’ll take 3-percent. Now, hopefully the state begins to tackle the mandate issues."

The Bayport-Blue Point School District is anticipated to receive an additional $171,294 in state aid. The district will receive a total of $15.45 million in aid next year. Not including building and transportation aid, that represents a 1.42 percent increase or $171,294.

B-BP school officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

While the change in state aid is expected to help districts across Long Island, it is not without restrictions.

Cuomo’s “2012-13 Executive Budget and Reform Plan” features a total increase of $805 million in school aid, of which $56.3 million will be distributed to Long Island districts. The state aid figures will not be finalized for a few months as the governor and the legislature work out the details of the state budget. 

The total budget includes $250 million for performance grants linked to improved academic performance and management efficiency via a formal enhanced teacher evaluation process that must be created within the year. Failure to do so could mean forfeiting aid increases this year and next, according to a press release.

Schartner says Sayville currently has very good tools for principal and teacher evaluations, and he doesn't anticipate any problems with having a plan in place before next year.

"This puts us in a better position, where we only need to adjust it to meet the intricacies of the law," he said.

All New York school districts will be held to annual property tax increases of 2-percent in the 2012-13 school year, unless a 60-percent majority among residents vote to override the cap.