On April 21, after much discussion and debate, which began on April 20, the Levittown Board of Education adopted a $92,145,987 budget which will be presented for a public vote on May 19.

This was the first budget hearing, after five planning sessions for the board. It started out with a Public Be Heard session in which parents, once again, urged the board to consider a door monitor for Summit Lane Elementary School. Parents who spoke were very upset that no decision had been made before since the budget was being adopted that evening. Emotions ran high when one parent claimed that she was being misled by the board and Superintendent Herman Sirois reminded them that this was the date that they had always planned on discussing the subject of school security. Sirois stated that the issue would be discussed at that meeting and could, very possibly, be added into the budget.

The board then heard from the Citizens Advisory Committee who made recommendations on school security, traffic congestion, personnel and staffing, and buildings and grounds. The committee made several recommendations to the board about what they thought was needed and was feasible and how much each of these things cost. They discussed each of the options that were open to the board and what the implications of each one would be on the budget. Some parents in the audience were very unhappy with their recommendations about security because they did not include a door monitor for Summit Lane.

The floor was then opened for board members and administration to ask questions of the CAC. Some board members wanted to know specifics on how the CAC came up with the figures that they did. Others questioned where the money would come from for additional expenses when they were trying to keep the budget low. The CAC answered these questions to the best of their ability and were aided by Dr. Alan Groveman, the assistant superintendent for business, with whom they had been in constant contact while coming up with their recommendations.

The board then went on to discuss further the implications of the recommendations that the CAC made. One of the big issues was school security and what the best way to go about that would be. A big discussion ensued about what the least intrusive but most effective security system would be. The issue became not whether there would be security provisions made, but what the best ones would be. They finally decided to put $20,000 aside in the budget for security, but have no specifications on what that security would be. By doing this the money could be spread out through all the schools or be focused on one, but it would be there when the most effective method was decided upon.

The board then went on to discuss the problem of traffic congestion and how that was an immediate concern. Groveman said that with the buses that the district already has, the cost of decreasing the transportation mileage would be minimal, if anything. This caused a bit of confusion with some members of the board but Groveman was able to break it down and explain what resources were already available. He stated that through this plan there could be a two-thirds cutdown in traffic, at minimal cost, by the time it was fully implemented. One board member wanted to know if they would look back and regret this decision, or if it was a plan that could be changed if it did not work a couple of years down the road. Groveman answered that in order to change it back, there would have to be the same sort of vote that is needed to change it now, but that it could be done. The board decided to wait until their April 22 meeting to make a final decision about whether or not to reduce the transportation mileage.

Groveman then went on to discuss with the board what could be done with capital improvements. He explained to them that there was $1 million available through the state's capital improvement plan that could be used for these needed improvements. This money from the state has been passed by the legislature and just needs to be approved by the governor and then it will be available for the Levittown School District. He suggested that the district take advantage of that money and figure on using it rather than new money for the buildings and grounds improvements.

After all these issues had been discussed the board got into the nitty gritty of hashing out a budget. They discussed various cuts that they could make to best fit the amount they wanted to keep the tax rate under, and argued about which ones would be best to make. This was a difficult process because as one board member said, they did a good thing by putting additional monies into various programs and they did not want that to cause conflict with other programs because of that.

The board was determined to keep the tax rate increase under $2 per 100 assessed valuation. They went into executive session in order to come up with a final figure. While they started off with a figure of $1.97, by the time they came back from executive session it was down to $1.85. It was from this figure that they were able to adopt their final budget figure of $92,145,987. All the board members except for one approved this final amount at 12:55 a.m on April 22.