At its Aug. 10 meeting, the BOE announced that the tax levy for the 2004-2005 fiscal year is $90,680,621. This is the amount of money the district needs to raise through taxation, after other income revenues (i.e. state aid) for the new year are computed and subtracted from the district's expenditures. And, though the 2004-05 school budget increased 8.55 percent, representing an increase of $7,865,969 over last year's figure of $91,967,975, the tax rate, based on this year's county assessments, for the new year is up 12.4 percent. The new rate is $120.499 per $100 of assessed valuation of Class I residential dwellings, up from $107.228 for the previous year. Readers interested in finding out their school tax for the new year can call the county assessor's office at 571-2490. A clerk will be able to figure out your school tax, minus any exemption discounts (i.e. STAR) for the new year. Please note this will not include other taxes (i.e. town, village, county).

The tax rate for the other three classes are cooperatives and condos-$410.24 per $100 assessed valuation; commercial property- $376.44 per $100 assessed valuation and for utilities $397.07 per $100 assessed valuation.

The school calendar for the '04-'05 year is as follows:

Schools open- Sept. 8

Recess- Sept. 16 and 17

Columbus Day-Oct. 11

Veterans Day-Nov. 11

Thanksgiving recess- Nov. 25-26

Recess- Dec. 24-Dec. 31

Martin Luther King Day- Jan. 17

Recess- Feb. 21-25

Recess- March 25

Recess- April 25-29

Memorial Day- May 30

Last day of school- June 24

High School graduation-June 24

The board of education's committee assignments for '04-'05 were announced at the BOE's meeting on July 13. The chairs will be selected at the first meeting of each committee. The assignments are as follows:

Personnel: Mark Marcellus, Dean Nardone, Roy Nelson

Budget: Rob Seiden, Mark Marcellus, Jean-Marie Posner

Facilities: Nancy Cowles, Dean Nardone, Roy Nelson

Curriculum: David Strom, Nancy Cowles, Mark Marcellus

Policy: Roy Nelson, David Strom, Jean-Marie Posner

Planning: Dean Nardone, Rob Seiden, Jean-Marie Posner