Voting for the Westbury School District's proposed 2002-2003 budget will take place on Tuesday, May 21 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Drexel School, Park Avenue School, Middle School and Dryden Street School.

At this time, residents will have the opportunity to vote for or against the district's proposed budget of $61,440,542, a 9.2 percent or $5,176,694 increase over the current year's budget of $56,263,848. With the average home in Westbury assessed at $6,000, the tax rate increase would be 11.2 percent or $42.45 per $100 of assessed valuation.

The budget is broken into three components; Administrative, Program and Capital. The proposed 2002-2003 costs are $6,137,423, $48,665,568, and $6,637,551, respectively. Of the budget's total cost, only 18 percent or $11.3 million would be offset with state aid.

The increase is a result of such factors as health care premium increases, contractual increases; and a projected increase in enrollment resulting in the hiring of eight new teachers and a teachers' aide. Dr. Constance Clark, superintendent of Westbury Schools, said these new teachers will also service those youngsters who have not met the state mandates in English language arts and mathematics. "This increase addresses the academic intervention mandates from the state that are not federally funded," she said. "The state has mandated that we have to provide academic intervention in math and reading to any student who falls below level 3. We have to maintain smaller classes to do that and we also have to provide specialized services. We do not get a special monetary allocation for these academic interventions."

Dr. Clark also said that increased costs for health care benefits are unavoidable since medical and dental coverage is constantly going up. She also said that salary or contractual increases are necessary if the district is going to attract quality personal. "The increases play a very important role," she said. "They are items we have no control over."

Dr. Clark added that despite the proposed increase, the school district has been very sensitive to the taxpayer. "The district has gone out to secure special grants for programs that have lessened the burden of the budget," she said. "We have, over the last three years, been able to bring in close to $5 million in grants to help offset the operating budget. But that is still not sufficient to meet all the needs such as small class sizes and the academic enhancement and enrichment, as well as summer school and before and after school programs. We feel we have been extremely sensitive to the community and tried to keep the budget as low as possible."

In addition to the budget vote, election of school board trustees will also take place at this time. Karen Hollie is running unopposed for the seat on the Westbury Board of Education currently held by trustee April Lake who is not seeking another term. Incumbent Robert Troiano is also running unopposed for another term on the board.

For more information, contact the Westbury School District at 876-5000.