The Levittown Board of Education has decided to put the same budget up for a revote on June 6, after this year's $119,586,057 budget was one of four in Nassau County to fail on Tuesday. This will be the district's last chance to submit a budget, if it does not pass on the second try the district will have to operate under a contingency or "capped" budget.

Tuesday's results were the closest for Levittown in recent memory, with the budget going down by only 43 votes. As the results came in from the nine polling places, the budget was behind until the sixth polling place called in but when the two East Broadway voting sites called in there were 24 more yes votes than no votes. It came down to Division Avenue High School's results, which ended up being 170 in favor of the budget and 237 opposed to the proposal, thus defeating the budget by a total of 43 votes.

During the vote certification meeting, Board of Education President Michael Moriarity noted that he usually does not support the resubmission of a budget because in his opinion the failure of a budget signifies that the public was not satisfied with that budget, but added that in this case, because it was such a close vote, he would go along with the majority of the board and support the budget resubmission.

Levittown's proposed budget increase was 8.6 percent, which translates into a 10 percent tax increase for homeowners. The average increase this year around Long Island was 8 percent, with many districts having double digit budget increases.

Superintendent of the Levittown School District, Dr. Herman Sirois, in an interview following the budget vote, stated, "The implications of a contingency or defeated budget for the quality of life in our community are extremely serious. The academic achievement of the students who attend Levittown Schools has risen from the lowest in the county to well above the county average. A failed budget is likely, not only to stop this progress, but moreover to cause a decline in Levittown student achievement relative to other districts both in Nassau County and the state. That in turn will directly affect the quality of life, which has improved so much in recent years, in our community."

In recent years the state education department has done away with austerity and instead has established that districts whose budgets fail must operate under a contingency budget which is capped at a 2.5 percent increase. For Levittown, this year, the contingency budget, if the board's budget does not pass the second time, would be $115,832,805, a difference of approximately $3.7 million. Under a contingency budget there will be no interscholastic sports and no extracurricular activities, no buses for field trips or athletics and no late buses, all the new resources to help the students reach the new Regents standards would have to be cut, instrumental music in grades 3 and 4 would be cut, the gifted program would be cut in the middle school, the elementary class size would increase by an average of one to two students per class, the district will not be able to buy the new buses that were budgeted, they will not be able to keep up with the capital repair work that was budgeted, and community groups will have to be charged for the use of the district's buildings and fields.

"Levittown is in a different place than it was 15 or 20 years ago and our students are achieving at much higher standards," said Sirois. "The shame of it all is that one defeated budget could affect that a lot and prevent us from providing the services that have brought our kids up to where they are."

A budget hearing will take place at Levittown Memorial Education Center on May 23 at 8 p.m. The revote will take place on June 6 between the hours of noon and 9 p.m. at the regular polling places.