School District Receiving $1.3 Million More in State Aid Than Expected

State lawmakers passed a final budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year on Wednesday night, which will cut $1.6 million in state aid to Riverhead Central School District in the coming year.

Still a sizable number indeed: $1.6 million represents 8.68 percent of the district's $16.7 million in aid from the state. However the number fell well short of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's in his executive budget.

The difference leaves $1.3 million on the table, which school officials had not planned on having this upcoming year.

Superintendent Nancy Carney said on Tuesday night that the final budget - which closed a statewide $10 billion budget shortfall, according Cuomo's office - would have "no real impact" on the numbers she has been presenting to the school district in her budget presentations.

But she also said, "we're not expecting it to be much," referring to the difference in Cuomo's projected budget and the final product. 

State Sen., Ken LaValle, R-Port Jefferson, offered the following comment: "I fully expect that the dollars restored to the education budget will be put into the classroom and not taken from programs for our children. This is the time to start redesigning the education process so that taxpayers are getting the maximum investment for their dollars. "

Neither Carney nor Board of Education President Ann Cotten-DeGrasse were immediately available for comment.