Kings Park Schools Receive $166K More Than Anticipated in State Aid

The Kings Park Central School District has received $166,812 more in state aid than what had been anticipated for next year’s budget according to state aid reports released late Wednesday.

“It is still a substantial cut, but we are pleased to see a little bit more,” said school superintendent Dr. Susan Agruso.

According to Agruso, the original budget for state aid was $13,066,00. It has now been increased $166,812 for a total package of $13,245,267.

A total of $272 million was restored to school aid earlier this week when Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislators were able to come to an agreement on the cuts.

Agruso said the budget will still be very tight this year and that they would be still be cutting staff, however she said that the additonal money was being used to restore at least one teaching position. Class sizes will also be a little larger but they will be able to maintain programs.

“Elementary (class sizes) are in good shape. The high school classes are a bit large, but not impossible. It’s the first thing you do so you can offer more class choices to the students,” said Agruso.

Agruso expects elementary class sizes to run between 22 and 25 students.

Teacher cuts are expected to hit the elementary level the hardest due to 193 kids are registered for kindergarten next year in comparison to the current 9th grade class, which has 351 students.

High school teacher losses are budget driven says Agruso.

Final teacher cuts will not be known until the budget is approved. “This is our third year of cuts,” said Agruso.

“We can still offer a good education and still have good teachers, but we feel badly for those we are losing,” said Agruso.

Important Dates:

• March 31, 7 p.m. Final budget workshop.
• April 12, 7:30 p.m. Budget adoption.
• May 3, 7:30 p.m.  Annual budget hearing.
• May 17. School budget vote.