In preparation for the May 17 School Budget Vote, the Farmingdale Board of Education held the first in a series of Budget Presentations. The school board encourages residents to join them in a dialogue of the important financial issues at upcoming budget meetings.

At the March 16 presentation, district administrators gave residents an overview of the proposed budget for 2005-06. Until the budget is adopted by the school board on April 20, this proposal is still a working document. In addition to the preparation of the budget proposal, the school district and board of education are concurrently preparing a contingency budget, as required by the state, should the proposal not meet with approval at the polls.

The proposed budget for 2005-06 is $121,919,726, a budget-to-budget increase from the current year of 6.36 percent. To hold down expenditures, the proposal contains staffing reductions in the equivalent of 11 full-time positions districtwide. Among those are the elimination of Director of Districtwide Operations, as well as teaching positions that will impact the elementary school science specialists' program, and at the middle and high school, resource room and collaborative labs for special education, and music class sizes. Other cutbacks at the high school include the elimination of SAT preparation classes, and the number of sections of some AP and language classes.

Assistant Superintendent John Lorentz noted that "over the last couple of years, we've essentially put the elementary schools on a contingency budget" by the elimination of all student clubs and evening activities.

Following reductions in the 2004-05 budget, the 2005-06 proposal makes some restorations, including limited elementary co-curricular activities, spring elementary school concerts (one night for each school), evening kindergarten "round up," re-entry of the fifth grade in the Odyssey of the Mind competitions, and an extension of evening building use from 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. These restorations amount to approximately $60,000, or roughly five-hundredths of a percent (0.05 percent) of the proposed budget.

The contingency budget that is being drafted as required by the state will reduce the 2005-06 proposed budget outlined above by $733,612. These further reductions will take place in the following areas: capital projects ($250,000), all after school transportation for public and private schools ($93,858), interscholastic sports ($160,467), co-curricular activities ($141,254), and administration ($88,033). A contingency budget is restricted to the lesser of 120 percent of the current Consumer Price Index or 4 percent above the prior year's budget.

Residents were invited to attend the second budget workshop, where the board of education discussed program impacts and districtwide operations. The remaining budget sessions are March 30 (capital facilities, BOCES services, revenue, state aid and taxes) and the Public Input Meeting on April 13. All meetings are held in Howitt East Cafeteria at 8 p.m.