School District Goes to Vote on Tuesday

Tuesday's school elections and budget vote will take place in the Riverhead High School from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

On the Board of Election slate are four candidates running for three positions. Click for a recap on their backgrounds and video interviews. 

In regards to the budget, a $109.5 million budget proposal calls for a spending increase of 1.27 percent over least year and a tax levy increase of 4.92 percent over last year. 

Superintendent Nancy Carney on April 12 the night the Board of Education passed it.

Related: For a cheat sheet on the budget, including opinion pieces, year-to-year breakdowns, and prior coverage, click for a list of previously written pieces. 

The budget calls for a loss of 39 positions in the district, 15 of which are faculty. According to Barbara Barosa, president of the Riverhead Central Faculty Association, the past four years have seen close to 55 faculty cuts. 

Carney said that were it not for increases in employee and teachers' retirement payments - payments mandated by the state to make up for a lack of earnings in the teachers' pension funds - the net impact of the budget would have been negative 0.64 percent. 

A contingency budget would increase the tax levy by 4.85 percent over 2010-2011.

In addition to the budget, the public will be asked to vote on the following proposition:  "Shall the Board of Education be authorized to transfer unallocated District funds, State funds for capital improvements or donations to the 2011 Repair Reserve Fund, in an amount not to exceed $5,000,000, for the purpose of funding major repairs to the facilities of the District?"

The Repair Reserve Fund, as it states, will serve as a specific pool of funding to be used specifically for major repairs, or capital improvements, on school grounds. Though the district failed to earn support for a capital improvements bond last spring, board members feel "the District may require major repairs to one or more of the schools, prior to the permanent financing being approved," according to the text of the resolution. 

The board increased the size of the fund from $3 million to $5 million on April 12. 

Joseph Singleton, the disctirct's interim financial administrator, stated it would "give the district some leeway in case we need some additional funding."