Masks are optional at school

With some hesitation by two Shelter Island Board of Education members, the vote was unanimous Monday night to make mask wearing optional for students, staff and visitors.

Students in New York State will be allowed to attend school unmasked, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced Sunday. The governor said the mask mandate in schools, an unpopular policy for many parents across the state, was lifted two days after students returned from the February break. Counties and cities may still enact their own mandates, the governor said.

Board of Education members Katherine Rossi-Snook and Karina Montalvo said they had concerns, but wouldn’t impose their own feelings on the decision.

Superintendent Brian Doelger, Ed.D., reminded the Board that if COVID-19 numbers spike again, the Board could also revisit the question of masking.

District eying possible 0% increase in levy

There’s good news for Island taxpayers and potentially better news to come from the school administration and Board of Education to fund the $12.49 million spending plan, up from the current school year budget of $12.38 million.

At Monday night’s budget workshop, Mr. Doelger revealed the original plan to bring in a budget rising 1.5% from last year — which is below the 2% state-imposed tax cap — had now been further reduced to 0.87%. The decrease in the amount of money from taxpayers to cover spending is due to a couple of planned personnel changes, Mr. Doelger said.

Looking ahead to April, the superintendent is hoping increased state school aid will be larger than originally anticipated. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) allocation was already higher than expected, and more money could be added to the state budget for education by the Legislature. The state budget is due April 1.

In April, the Board of Education will consider how much money to apply to the 2022-23 spending to offset the spending plan. It could be enough to bring that tax levy increase to zero, the superintendent said.

Since the district was criticized following a state comptroller’s examination of its finances, in part because the district had a larger fund balance than allowed by regulators, there’s been a steady decline it its fund balance. Some of the decreases resulted from legal transfers to special funds, such as one created for repairs and maintenance projects.