Hampton Bays School Budget Finalized

On Thursday night, the Hampton Bays School Board adopted the district's preliminary budget for the 2011-2012 school year.

A presentation by Larry Luce, the district's business administrator, was attended by three members of the community, who sat in stadium-like seats in Room 9 of the high school. The meeting was moved to the room from the library, the usual site of meetings, to accomodate the highest number of people.

The budget differs very little from the presented two days before. The increase in spending is 2.59 percent over this year —which represents an additional $1.3 million —with the biggest increase in spending, 17.59 percent, going towards employee benefits.

The largest savings were in the summer school and research, planning and evaluations lines, 23 and 33 percent respectively. Luce said the budget does not call for any member of the faculty or staff to be laid off; the savings were brought about by retirements and district-wide concessions from the union.

"It’s not a perfect picture," he said. "I wish it were rosier. The concessions we asked for are multi-year concessions. The staff has been reasonalble and willing.

A public hearing on the budget will be held on May 3.