South Huntington Takes Up $140M Budget

South Huntington voters will pick two school board members and decide whether to approve a $140-million budget in balloting that starts Tuesday afternoon.

Like most other Long Island school budgets, this one is hardly pain free. The combination of a loss of state aid, increasing costs and less revenue from property taxes has left its mark.

The nine-period schedule at , favored by many students who pleaded at several school board meetings to save it, is gone. Also cut are several jobs, including 30 paraprofessionals and 16 teachers, while three varsity sports are teetering, in need of fundraisers to continue the sports next year. And programs for gifted students were also eliminated.

The budget of $140,255,037 depends on a 1.29 percent increase over this year's budget, which translates into a 5.91 percent tax rate increase for property owners. On a home with an assessed value of  $4,000, taxes would increase $495.68 per year. It also reflects a loss of $1.6 million in state aid.

Middle school sports has been preserved by a transfer of money from reserve funds.  Full-day kindergarten was retained  and some clubs or activities that appeared at one time or another to be on the chopping block were reinstated or combined--foreign language honor societies, for example, have been merged into one.

The process was not without controversy. The teachers union, pressed to save the district money through givebacks, presented a plan to pay more toward health insurance and save the ninth-period schedule along with teachers' job. But the offer came with strings that the administration and board rejected.

A contingency budget is also in place, set by the school board when it adopted the regular budget. If the budget should fail, a contingency budget of $139,753,943 could kick in, with a 12.05% tax increase.