The Roslyn School District Board of Education recently approved a 2006-07 budget for a vote, one that will be held on Tuesday, May 16.

The proposed budget represents an increase of less than 8 percent in appropriations over the 2005-2006 document with its tax rate increase projected to exceed 12 percent.

The vote to approve the budget for a vote was 6-1, with only Meryl Ben-Levy Waxman voting no.

However, an opposition to the budget is taking shape. Part of the opposition is the formation of a group called RoslynTaxPayer.com. East Hills resident Cary Ratner said that the new organization plans a "full opposition" to the budget. That includes, he said, distributing posters and mailings, buying television time on both Cablevision 12 and Channel 55, plus posting information on the website RoslynTaxPayer.com.

Ratner said that the group was patterned after Long Islanders for Educational Reform, an organization that seeks ways to reduce property taxes on the island. RoslynTaxPayer.com, he added, is a "totally nonpartisan group presently consisting of 16 residents, dedicated to understanding and improving the quality of education and keeping it affordable."

"The current budget requiring a 12.1 percent school increase is only .9 percent lower than that proposed by the tainted school board under the convicted Frank Tassone," Ratner said.

"All of us feel that the budget is bloated with vast expenditures unrelated to education, its teachers or programs," Ratner continued. "Erecting four tennis courts when a new $16 million recreational park is opening 3,000 feet from the school is one example. Three $15,000 water fountains, an $80,000 sprinkler system, and an Astroturf playing field define the words, 'misuse of funds.'"

" RoslynTaxPayers.com would like to see a true dollar for dollar value in the tax money paid," Ratner claimed. "The infamous 'Roslyn Summer Program,' which under Tassone paid nurses $7,780 for 19 days of work, and teachers $130 per hour last summer, ran a 100 percent cost overrun. The cost was so out of line that we could send the children to Pierce Day Camp, pay the fees, and still save money. Yet, no one took responsibility and none was sought by the board. These excesses have clearly demonstrated that the Roslyn School District is fiscally irresponsible and unworthy of any State Aid.

"We all seek the best for our children, and must set the example for future generations, namely that excessive spending on unproductive projects is not money well spent," Ratner concluded.

When the budget was approved for the May 16 vote, Stanley Stern, the current BOE president, said it was "a true education budget," one designed to "improve the quality of education in Roslyn."

Meanwhile, Walter Reed, chairman of the Budget Advisory Committee, said the BAC has taken no position, pro or con, on the budget "at this point."

Reed did say that due to the BAC's work on the budget, over $1 million in corrections and reductions have been made on that document. BAC members, Reed said, discovered omissions on such items as oil and gas costs and teachers salaries. It also found that other items in the budget, namely teacher retirement funds and Social Security funding, were in excess of what was required.

Speaking strictly for himself, Reed said that the budget should have taken advantage of the pay-as-you-go option on medical insurance. Such an option, he said, would have resulted in $750,000 in savings and a reduction in the tax rate of 1 percent.

The BAC, he said, will meet again on Monday, April 24 to further discuss the budget. That meeting will be held in the board room of the school district's Administration Building and will begin at 7:30 p.m.

In other news, the BOE, at its April 25 meeting, will vote on including a "Proposition #2" on the May 16 ballot.

Such a proposition would determine how the over $4 million in court-ordered restituted funds from the embezzlement scandal are spent.

A draft of the proposition states that the BOE would be authorized to transfer such monies into the capital account and "expend" the monies for capital improvements in such areas as: Home Economics Building in-house renovations, the installation of a high school chemistry laboratory and language laboratory, roof replacement at the high school, middle school, East Hills, and Harbor Hills schools, district-wide plumbing, masonry, security system upgrades, technology upgrades, playground safety, fire safety and exhaust ventilation system upgrades and district-wide door replacement, field renovations, and blacktop and asphalt repair.

The proposition draft further states that the transfer of funds and capital expenditures "will not result in an increase in taxes for the 2006-07 school year."

The Tuesday, April 25 meeting will begin at 8:30 p.m. and take place at the board of education room.