At the April 5 meeting of the Mineola Union Free School District Board of Education, the board voted to adopt a budget of $57,488,644 for the 2001-2002 school year. The 2001-2002 budget reflects a $4,760,527 or a 9 percent increase over the 2000-2001 school budget of $52,728,117 that the district is currently operating under.

The proposed budget includes funds for upgrading and replacing windows at the Meadow Drive School, installing a fire safety system at the Jackson Avenue School and major renovations and expansions to the high school library.

The library expansion will increase the current space from approximately 4,000 square feet to approximately 6,000 feet. The library will be redesigned to create a state of the art library media center on the level of a college library.

In addition, the board feels the budget contains elements, which support the initiatives passed in last year's successful bond referendum. "This budget is seen as complementing and furthering the initiatives developed as part of the bond planning process while it still enables us to continue supporting our regular instructional programs. It sets the stage for the work which the bond is funding," said board of education President John McGrath.

"These improvements are an example of how we are trying to deliver the promises we made to our school community. After our first bond proposal failed, we conducted a survey, which told us several important things. We listened as the public clearly told us that they wanted a smaller bond and that they wanted us to include certain large capital expenses as part of the regular operating budget to help keep the cost of the bond within certain regular limits. The fire safety, windows and the high school library expansion represent attempts to honor what the community has told us by placing these items in the operating budget," said assistant superintendent Dr. Ari-Zev Anolic.

Over the next several years, in future budgets, the district proposes to enhance the science laboratories and renovate a technology wing in the high school. Assistant Superintendent John Jackson said the district is committed to continuing capital improvements over a five-year period.

"These projects were coordinated to go hand in hand with the progress of the work funded by the bond. The construction of the state of the art library will dovetail perfectly with the rewiring of the building, taking place next year. These two initiatives will create a library media center that rivals any in Nassau County. This budget now does contain certain specific upgrades as promised last year," Mr. Jackson said.

At recent board of education meetings, discussion has sometimes centered on the Academically Gifted Program (AGP). Residents may have noticed that, in the budget newsletter sent out by the district, $224,680 is allocated to the AGP program in the 2001-2002 budget compared to the $374,872 allocated to AGP in the 2000-2001 budget.

According to Mr. Jackson, the $150,192 difference is due to the re-allocation of salaries. Mr. Jackson made it clear, though, that "in no way, shape or form" is the AGP program being cut.

The budget vote will take place on Tuesday, May 15 at the district's individual elementary schools. Voting hours are between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. The board of education has set up a hotline to answer questions concerning the budget. You many call Mr. John Jackson at 741-4565 during the week of May 7 from 9 a.m. to noon with any questions you wish answered.

At their meeting in November of 2000, the New York State Board of Regents amended four regulations as emergency actions in order to comply with the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act (SAVE) legislation signed into law by Governor George Pataki in July of 2000.

Two of the regulations deal with district-wide and building level school safety plans and codes of conduct respectively. The administration of the Mineola School District has conducted a series of meetings to develop appropriate responses to the state's request to have such plans in place by July 1, 2001.

Two committees, composed of administrators, teachers, parents and students worked to create a new code of student conduct and a new emergency response and safety plan. Building on a variety of models and resources made available to the district, both committees have recently approved the proposed documents.

Mineola High School Principal Jay Lewis was appointed the Project Save District coordinator. He stated that a public hearing to discuss these proposals would be held during the May 10 meeting of the board of education at Mineola Middle School. The meeting begins at 8 p.m. All concerned residents are invited to attend. An invitation will be mailed to all parents of current Mineola students.

In order to provide the public an opportunity to examine the plans before the meeting, drafts of these two documents will be made available in the libraries and offices of each school building in the district as well as in the Mineola Public Library, beginning May 4. The public is urged to review these plans before the meeting.

Last week, the Mineola School District received approval to demolish the Willis Avenue School building from the New York State Education Department. An asbestos and lead abatement on the building is scheduled to take place in late summer or early fall.

Also scheduled for this summer is an asbestos abatement in the middle school, which will begin on July 1, for the annex area.

The district is also expecting to soon receive approval from the state education department to commence work on the high school roof. The district expects work on the roof to begin in late summer or early fall. The district hopes to have the roof on by the winter since school officials want to avoid another winter with the current roof.

The remaining jobs in the bond issue will most likely take place in late spring or early summer, according to Mr. Jackson.

The search for a new district superintendent to replace Dr. Harry Jaroslaw, who will be retiring, a new assistant principal for the high school to replace Mike Terc, who will also be retiring, and a new district director of health and physical education to replace Tony Gulli, who also resigned for the purposed of retirement, is getting closer to a resolution.

In the search for a superintendent, the district has narrowed the candidates down to five who will be interviewed by the board of education.

In the search for an assistant principal, there are three candidates who will be interviewed by the board and for a new director of health and physical education, there is one potential candidate and seven more that will be interviewed by the district.