What to know about school budgets across Long Island
Several school districts were either looking to pierce the tax cap or cut teachers next year to balance their books.
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Taxpayers across Long Island's 124 school districts headed to the polls to cast their votes on whether to approve budgets for next year.
Some faced very difficult choices.
Three school districts on Long Island - Elwood, Hicksville and Shelter Island - attempted to pierce the state’s tax cap. Going above the cap requires a supermajority of 60% of the voters to approve the budget.
Another half dozen - Hempstead, Kings Park, Smithtown, South Country, Three Village and Uniondale - asked voters to stay within the tax cap by cutting teachers and staff next year to balance their books.
Most of these districts blamed the need to cut or go above the tax cap on combinations of declining student enrollment, higher costs to run schools and not enough state aid.
The South Country School District, for example, put a budget before voters that would eliminate 51 positions but stays tax cap-compliant.
"It is difficult," Brookville resident Lynne Maher said as she cast her budget vote today at Bellport Middle School. "It could be cut from different places."
Others, like East Patchogue resident Robert Hines, tried to see the positives.
"They're doing a lot of good things as well," he said. "They're redoing the track and there are a lot of good improvements happening in the school."
Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association executive director Robert Vecchio blamed the cuts on the state for not providing adequate aid.
"A lot of districts have been having to tighten their belts because the amount of state aid has not been able to keep up with the pace of inflation," he said.
News 12 reached out to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office about concerns that school aid is not keeping pace with inflation.
A spokesperson did not directly address the inflation issue but said the governor has increased school aid to Long Island by $5.3 billion since taking office.
In addition to budgets, voters will weigh in on several proposition questions as well as candidates for their respective boards of education.
Interview with Robert Vecchio of the Nassau-Suffolk School Board Association
