Final school budget piece to be unveiled Monday

The final piece of the puzzle that makes up the Shelter Island School District budget proposal gets put in place Monday night when Superintendent Leonard Skuggevik outlines proposed spending to cover capital expenditures and athletics.So far, the district is looking at a tentative spending plan for administrative expenditures — covering administration salaries, contractual agreements, travel and conferences, materials and supplies and BOCES services  — totaling $1.13 million, up from $1.04 million in the current school year.

Expenses in the educational portion of the proposal — including staffing, general and special education programs, occupational education, student support services, co-curricular activities and transportation — total $4.1 million, up from 3.8 million.

The budget proposed to voters for the current school term totalled $10.47 million and was approved in May 2014 by a very comfortable margin of 216 to 47.

After the third piece of the budget gets outlined at Monday night’s budget hearing, Mr. Skuggevik will recap the entire proposal at a budget hearing on Monday, March 30. Then he and the Board of Education will pour over numbers to reach a final proposal they expect to approve on April 22 for submission to voters May 19.

The superintendent has previously announced that the budget would stay within the district’s 1.6 percent allowable tax cap this year and speculated that at least $460,000 would be used from the fund balance to offset expenses.

At the same time, he has issued a warning to taxpayers that this could be the final year the district is able to meet expenses by taking money from the fund balance and that could result in a need to pierce the state-imposed tax cap in future years.

Monday night’s hearing is set for 7 p.m. in the school’s board meeting room.

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