BARBARAELLEN KOCH FILE PHOTO | New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

Governor Andrew Cuomo is proposing big cuts in state education aid, including a $76,376 reduction in aid for Shelter Island School for the 2011-2012 school year. That’s 15.09 percent less than the school received for the current school year.

Shelter Island isn’t alone. The governor’s budget indicates that Greenport would see cuts of $198,806 (15.73 percent), Southold cuts of $346,802 (18.87 percent), and Sag Harbor cuts of $170,374 (11.86 percent).

Governor Cuomo’s budget includes $1.5 billion in total cuts from state aid for New York schools, an average of 7.3 percent statewide and 8.2 percent for Suffolk County schools. $250 million of the cuts will be coming from Long Island schools. The drop in aid for schools is part of a plan to eliminate a $10 billion state deficit, according to Governor Cuomo.

The budget is still subject to approval by the New York State Legislature. An influential group of Republican Long Island Senators, nicknamed “The Long Island Nine,” has pledged to block the budget cuts, saying that they disproportionately affect Long Island schools.

The budget is still subject to approval by the New York State Legislature. An influential group of Republican Long Island Senators, nicknamed “The Long Island Nine,” has pledged to block the budget cuts, saying that they disproportionately affect Long Island schools.

Shelter Island School is facing other budgetary pressures, including rising costs from health insurance and retirement system obligations. “It’s lots of things increasing at a time when you’ve got to do something, because you can’t absorb all those increases,” said interim Superintendent Robert Parry. “It’s going to be up to the board in the next three budget workshops to determine what to do in spite of this bad news from the state, the health insurance provider and the TRS and ERS retirement systems.”

The Shelter Island School Board is in the process of making the budget for the next school year — their first budget workshop was February 1. “We know we have a long road ahead of us,” said School Board President Rebecca Mundy. “As we have done in the past we just keep trying to go line by line, look at the budget, be familiar with everything and try to make the best decision possible at the end of this process.” She added, “It is going to be hard.”

Historically, the actual amounts of state aid received by New York State schools once the budget is adopted is rarely the same as those listed in the governor’s proposal, though Mr. Parry said the school will use Governor Cuomo’s proposed figure for creating the 2011-2012 school budget.

For the 2009-2010 school year, Governer David Paterson’s proposed budget allocated $488,659 for Shelter Island in state aid, a $175,321 cut (26.4 percent) from the prior year. Ultimately the New York Legislature passed a budget that gave Shelter Island $551,420 in aid, a $112,560 cut (16.9 percent) from 2008-2009. Last year, Governor Paterson proposed $472,835 in state aid for the current school year, which would have amounted to a $78,585 cut (14.25 percent) from the 2009-2010 school year. The legislature’s approved budget raised that to $509,076, which constituted a $42,344 cut (7.7 percent) in state aid.