East Williston Board of Education President Mark Kamberg was visibly elated at Monday night’s school board meeting as he offered a “big thank you” to the voters who had come out to support the $51.4 million budget, which passed by a nearly 2-1 margin in last week’s balloting.
But Kamberg was already anticipating the difficulties the board would face next year in duplicating their feat of holding the 2011-12 budget to a 1.9 percent increase.
“I think the governor recognizes that the tax cap, as it is, just will not work,” Kamberg said.
Board vice president Robert Freier noted that the budget had passed by a margin that would have carried the budget if Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2 percent tax cap had already been in effect this year. Under current state law, voters can override the 2 percent cap if the budget receives 60 percent of the votes cast.
“Let them decide, Freier said. “To implement a cap is about the worst thing you could do here.”
In the afterglow of the budget approval, East Williston Superintendent of Schools Lorna Lewis said that The Wheatley School had been named to the top 100-ranked high schools in the country after an absence of a few years from the list. The list, originally published by Newsweek, is now compiled by The Washington Post, Lewis said.
“It really is a celebration of all the school that are even mentioned on that list,” Lewis said.
In his report on engineering, procurement and construction, interim plant facilities administrator Christopher Malone said the school district faces a July 16 deadline for Honeywell to redo the heating system in The Wheatley School in time for the fall semester. East Williston Assistant Superintendent of Business Jacqueline Fitzpatrick said Honeywell has already bought the equipment.
Malone said he is currently addressing projects in the second phase of a bond approved a few years ago, including repair of the Wheatly roof, installation of new front doores at Wheatley and replacement of windows in the North Side School.
Fitzpatrick said she would have a final figure for the current budget surplus at next month’s board meeting. She had reported a surplus of more than $1 million several months ago. The school board must determine how to use the surplus by June 13.
