The majority of residents in the Levittown and Island Trees School Districts came out in support of the districts' budgets and planned capital projects this past Tuesday.

In Levittown, where 3,789 people came out to vote, the budget passed by 537 votes. Of the nine locations where residents voted, the only polling place that had more people voting against the budget than for it was Wisdom Lane Middle School. Voters at Northside and East Broadway, overwhelmingly came out in support of the proposed budget.

Last year Levittown was one of three school districts on Long Island whose budget failed the first time around and this year, with 19 school districts coming in with failing budgets, Levittown is the only one of those three districts that had a passing budget.

Levittown residents also approved Proposition II, which allows the district to spend $1,308,125 to construct four classrooms at Salk and $638,250 for the purpose of constructing one new chemistry lab and refurbishing two chemistry labs between Division Avenue High School and MacArthur High School. There were 1,894 residents who came out in support of this proposition and 1,534 who voted against it.

In addition to the passage of the budget and capital improvement project, Michael Moriarity and James Moran were also returned for another term on the school board. Both candidates were running unopposed.

Following the announcement of the vote and election results, Levittown Superintendent of Schools Dr. Herman Sirois stated, "I want to congratulate the board of education. It was a very tough budget, it took a lot of courage to put up the budget you did to meet the district's needs and I think the voters agreed with your decision, as you see tonight. On behalf of the school district, you deserve our thanks for doing the right thing by the district. Certainly the PTA deserves a lot of thanks for their efforts to get out the votes." Sirois went on to note that in recent years the voters have supported some fairly steep increases and on behalf of the children and the district he thanked the voters for this support.

School Board Trustees Ken Auer and Ron Kinberg also thanked the PTA for their efforts in encouraging residents to get out and vote. "They did a fabulous job," said Auer.

"The Levittown PTA Council worked hard to promote the school district budget," stated PTA Council President Lisa Vanderburg, following the budget results. "The voters of the Levittown School District have shown through the passage of the 2000-01 budget, the first time, that they believe in the quality of education children receive here in this district. I have confidence that our children will continue to improve academically with this budget."

In Island Trees, voters approved the budget, which included a $1.3 million capital project by an over 2 to 1 majority. With 775 residents voting, an increase over the number of voters who came out last year, 518 people were in favor of the budget and 257 people voted against it.

Returned for another term on the school board were Charles Bambino and Jerome Donahue, both of whom ran unopposed.

"We are very pleased with the results and the support from the residents on our budget and we will do everything in our power to continue to provide the services and keep the taxes as low as possible," stated Island Trees Superintendent Richard Segerdahl.

In East Meadow, voters approved both the budget and the $49.55 million school bond improvement proposition.