Farmingdale School Budget: Voter's Guide

The Farmingdale School District will put to vote a $146,957,711 budget May 17, which calls for a and represents a decrease in spending from last year. Be informed before tomorrow's vote by reading this wrap-up of Patch's school budget season coverage.

Lobbying Albany

Knowing it would be a tough budget year for Long Island schools, Farmingdale School District administrators, students and community members to express the impact of the reduced aid and tax cap on the district to legislators back in March.

Teachers in the district also took action, initiating a campaign and teachers across Long Island

State Aid Cuts, Tax Levy, Reserves

The tax levy in the – 2.96 percent – after the district found out it will receive a as a result of the state legislature putting some education aid back into Governor Cuomo's budget.

Even so, the district is receiving $2 million less state aid than last year, while state-mandated costs like retirement system contributions and health insurance have increased 35 percent and 15 percent respectively. To help off-set these revenue losses and rising expenses, the budget uses $1,803,251 from the reserves and $5,196,749 from the fund balance - the money left over from last year- a total of $7 million.

The Cuts

The include reducing district staff, combining seventh- and eighth- grade sports teams and eliminating some after-school clubs, while maintaining an average district-wide class size of 21.71, keeping career electives available and recognizing the value of extracurriculars, administrators said.

Salaries make up the majority of the district’s total expenses at $78,053,893.This figure is $2.44 million less than last year and was reached . At this time, there are a projected 15 instructional layoffs, five non-instructional layoffs and 10 teacher aid/school monitor layoffs for the upcoming school year.

Board of Ed Candidate Profiles

Two seats on the Board of Education are up for re-election this year. Incumbents and are running unopposed. They discussed the issues facing schools this year in their candidate profiles.

The Community Reaction

about their takes on this year's budget. Individual members of the community also submitted opinion pieces about the budget. Take a look at what they had to say:

The Budget Vote

The budget was presented at five designated budget meetings and at more than 20 PTA meetings, community meetings and school staff meetings throughout April and . This year the budget presentation was also put on the district’s website.

Residents will vote tomorrow from 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. at