The Kings Park community can now expect more than $41 million in capital projects to give facilities within their school district a much needed upgrade. File photo
Kings Park schools are getting a face-lift.
On Tuesday, Dec. 8, community residents approved a capital project bond referendum totaling $41,422,515. The final vote was 1,331 yes, 499 no.
The board of education and Superintendent of Schools Timothy Eagen extended their appreciation to all those who participated in this vote.
“This bond is exactly what our facilities and grounds need to rebuild a foundation of pride in Kings Park,” Eagen said in a statement. “I am very thankful that the community has been so supportive of this project. Our infrastructure is in desperate need of updating.”
The results of the vote demonstrate that community residents value the quality education Kings Park provides to its students and the importance of maintaining and renovating district facilities for the benefit of students, staff and the community.
With the approved project, all six buildings within the district would see building improvements, including roof replacements, bathroom renovations and door and hardware replacements, as well as asphalt and pavement upgrades as necessary.
Plans also call for auditorium upgrades, gymnasium renovations and the creation of a multipurpose athletic field and accompanying concession stand/comfort station at Kings Park High School. Additional high school renovations include upgrading the library to provide for 21st century student research and learning needs and resurfacing and upgrading the high school track.
The full listing of projects can be found on the district’s website, www.kpcsd.k12.ny.us.
“On behalf of the BOE, I thank everyone who voted,” said board President Pam DeFord. “I would also like to thank the entire Facilities Committee and Dr. Eagen for the effort and time they dedicated to this project. From the beginning, taking on this bond project was a community effort. Many community members worked collaboratively to assess the needs of our district, keeping in mind the needs of our students as well as watching the cost factor for all residents. It was wonderful to have the community support the work of the committee. As we start ‘rebuilding our Kings Park pride,’ we should all be reminded of this great community. As you may have heard before, ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ and together, that is exactly what we are doing in our community. ”
The district said that it looks forward to the community’s future involvement as the plans and projects proposed in the approved bond become a reality.
A hall-of-fame coach will step in as the Port Jefferson school athletic director when longtime leader Deb Ferry leaves in the new year.
Debra Ferry helped establish the lacrosse program at Port Jefferson and has led its other teams to success. File photo
The board of education appointed Ed Cinelli as interim director of health, physical education and athletics on Dec. 8, about a month after accepting Ferry’s resignation. Cinelli, who was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 for his work as an educator and a coach, will fill her spot and help the school district find a permanent replacement.
The incoming director spent 30 years in the Patchogue-Medford school district, serving as the athletic director for more than half of that time. Before taking on that administrative role, while still teaching physical education there, he coached football and track — including a 1982 spring track team that, according to the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame, “was recognized at that time as one of the best track teams in the history of New York.”
He has also served as the executive director of Section XI, the regional organization under the umbrella of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association.
“We are very excited to have Mr. Cinelli serve in this position while the search for a new director commences,” Superintendent Ken Bossert said in a statement after the Dec. 8 board meeting. “His vast experience and wealth of knowledge within the areas of health, physical education and athletics will be a great asset to our students, staff and district.”
Until Port Jefferson has a long-term replacement, Cinelli will have a substantial pair of cleats to fill. Ferry, who has been athletic director for nine years, has been credited with establishing the boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams and is known for being anywhere and everywhere the students are playing.
“The kids are sometimes surprised to see her at games, especially making the hike all the way upstate for big playoff competitions, but she was there,” said Rod Cawley, the boys’ cross country and track and field coach. “In my 32 years at Port Jefferson, she’s been our best athletic director. She’s very honest, she’s supportive and she’s fair.”
Cawley said in a previous interview that when the girls’ soccer team won the state title this year for the first time in program history, Ferry was at the final game upstate — and also went to a cross country competition that same weekend.
“I kept busting her chops, telling her I’m not letting her go,” he said with a laugh.
Another coach, Mike Maletta, who heads the wrestling team and has taught in Port Jefferson for 23 years, said that Ferry was always at his squad’s state tournaments.
“You could see her walking around with a camera around her neck, taking pictures,” he said in an earlier interview. “A lot of those pictures make it to the end-of-the-year senior awards banquet and it went above and beyond what a lot of athletic directors do. She was always there supporting our program and those pictures meant a lot.”
Ferry will remain in her role as the Section XI first vice president when she takes the helm of the Half Hollow Hills athletic program, but her other roles within the organization will change because her new, larger district is in a different conference. She said in a previous interview that she will miss the people and the atmosphere at Port Jefferson.
“The intimacy of a small school district and knowing the kids is definitely a benefit,” she said. “The coaches and players make you feel like you’re part of the team.”
SCCC Biology Professor Peter Smith demonstrates the Anatomage Table. Photo by Victoria Pendzik, SCCC
It’s the most technologically advanced anatomy visualization system in the world, according to its manufacturer, and Suffolk County Community College’s Selden campus is the only college in New York State to have one. Welcome to teaching and learning in the 21st century.
The Anatomage virtual dissection table is being adopted at leading medical schools and institutions to allow lifelike and never-before-available interaction and visualization of the human body and its systems.
The table — about the size of a hospital bed, with a touchscreen surface — uses three-dimensional imagery from digitally scanned specimens to allow students to perform a lifesize, virtual dissection via touchscreen interface. The table can render limitless views of the human body in flawless detail.
Students can zoom in on or rotate different structures and virtually remove individual organs, according to SCCC Professor of Biology Dr. Peter Smith.
“The table is a remarkable technological tool that provides students with a 360-degree view of anatomical structures and their relationship to one another,” said Smith.
“We can look at the body through three dimensional visualization and all of the body’s structures can be annotated. This is what teaching anatomy in the 21st century is all about,” he added.
“The Anatomage Table is a true 21st century teaching tool. It permits Biology students not only to study Human anatomy, but it is a good addition to general biology classes that include animal anatomy. It includes, in its programming, the possibility of virtual dissection of cats and dogs. The table will help to reduce the use of preserved specimens, a more humane and sustainable approach to the study of vertebrate anatomy,” said Suffolk County Community College Biology Department Chair Dr. Rosa Gambier.
The technology allows students to visualize skeletal tissues, muscles, organs and soft tissue, and further customize the interaction by virtually slicing, layering and segmenting the anatomy. The selections can be rotated or flipped to accommodate any viewpoint.
Work with an actual cadaver requires many chemicals, there needs to be a facility to house them (SCCC was the only community college in New York with a cadaver lab), there is a great deal of regulation in working with cadavers, and there are recurring costs associated with them.
With the Anatomage Table, countless students have the ability to work with a body, enlarge or rotate systems and bisect and remove parts.
“The table,” explained Suffolk County Community College President Dr. Shaun L. McKay, “while advanced, is also a natural extension of what students are familiar with because it functions much like a tablet computer. We are extremely proud to bring this new tool to our college and to our students while fulfilling our mission of incorporating innovative teaching and learning strategies into our classrooms.”
Laura McNamara, math chair at P.J. Gelinas Junior High School, discusses how classes will change once they are officially aligned with the Common Core Learning Standards. Photo by Andrea Moore Paldy
As Three Village continues to align its curriculum with the Common Core, its secondary math chairs recently shared how the district’s courses will help students meet the new challenges.
Donald Ambrose, math chair at Ward Melville High School, pointed out that the objective of Common Core math is not simply to get the answer. “It’s examining the nuances” and having a deeper understanding of the numbers and their relationships, he said at last week’s board meeting.
“It’s definitely a lot more that’s going to be expected of our students,” he said.
Across the board, there is a greater focus on fewer topics, along with greater understanding and fluency, said Laura McNamara, math chair at P.J. Gelinas Junior High. McNamara laid out the curriculum in detail from seventh grade to Algebra II.
While students will learn to link math principles across grades, it will not be at the expense of broader understanding. In the shift toward greater alignment to the Common Core, students are being asked to “make sense of problems and persevere in solving them,” Ambrose said.
During the presentation, Ambrose explained that additional expectations for Common Core math include the application of abstract and quantitative reasoning, building logical mathematical arguments and critiquing the logic of others. Ambrose added that students should be able to understand mathematical operations well enough to apply them to real-life situations and use appropriate tools to solve problems. The more rigorous approach calls for precision, an understanding of structure and higher-level reasoning, he said.
To achieve these goals, the district’s two junior high schools offer a variety of classes for students at varying levels. They range from lab classes for seventh and eighth graders who need additional support, to standard math, honors and honors theory classes, along with Regents Algebra I and Geometry.
R.C. Murphy math chair, Rocco Vetro spoke about the importance of vertical integration — that is, fluidity from elementary school to junior high. To achieve this goal the seventh grades are now piloting Go Math!, the curriculum recently adopted in the elementary schools. Vetro also discussed the district’s efforts to provide professional development to help teachers implement the more rigorous standards.
At Ward Melville, in addition to the three Regents courses — Algebra I and II and Geometry — the high school offers several Advanced Placement (AP) courses, including Calculus, statistics and computer science. Multivariable calculus, which qualifies for college credit from Stony Brook University, also is being offered. For students who complete multivariable calculus before their senior year, the math department plans to develop a course on differential equations for 2017, Ambrose said.
The district’s high school students have traditionally outperformed their counterparts in the state on all three math Regents exams, both in passing rates and, most particularly, in mastery rates. As the Regents and AP exams become aligned to the new standards, Three Village educators have set a goal of increasing the already high levels of student mastery.
Moving forward, long term goals include adding more upper level courses, as well as continued vertical articulation between elementary, junior high and high school levels and further integration of classroom technology.
Smithtown Superintendent James Grossane. File photo from Smithtown Central School District
Smithtown Central School District, in conjunction with the Suffolk County Police Department, its PTAs, the Board of Education, Project Presence and many other community organizations, hosted a Parent University community forum on heroin and prescription drug education and awareness on Dec. 1.
During the event, attendees heard information on the dangers of prescription medication and heroin abuse, and learned how to recognize the signs of drug abuse among teenagers, and the tools and actions parents can take to help their child.
Following the forum, members of the police department offered training on Narcan, a prescription medication that can reverse an overdose by blocking the effects of opioids. SCPD’s Operation Medicine Cabinet was on hand to safely discard expired or unwanted prescription medication.
“Our goal is to increase education and awareness, and build protective factors and preventative skills for families with a series of follow-up workshops,” said Jennifer Bradshaw, assistant superintendent for instruction. “These Parent University forums align with our district goal to educate the whole student.”
People at an anti-drug forum stay afterward to learn how to use the anti-overdose medication Narcan. Above, someone practices spraying into a dummy’s nostrils. Photo by Elana Glowatz
The Suffolk County Police Department handed out dozens of overdose rescue kits in the Port Jefferson high school on Monday night, at the conclusion of a crowded drug abuse prevention forum geared toward educating parents.
“We have to double-down on prevention,” said Tim Sini, a deputy county commissioner for public safety who has recently been nominated for police commissioner.
People at an anti-drug forum stay afterward to learn how to use the anti-overdose medication Narcan. Above, Jim Laffey assembles a syringe. Photo by Elana Glowatz
He and other officials from the police department, medical examiner’s office and community spoke at the forum to inform parents about the dangers of drug abuse, including how kids get introduced to and hooked on drugs in the first place. Much of the discussion focused on opioid drugs, which include heroin as well as prescription painkillers like Vicodin and Percocet, and on the lifesaving Narcan, an anti-overdose medication that blocks opioid receptors in the brain and can stop an overdose of those types of drugs.
According to Dr. Scott Coyne, the SCPD’s chief surgeon and medical director, in the three years since Suffolk officers have been trained to administer Narcan — the well-known brand name for naloxone — they have used it successfully 435 times.
Attendees who stayed after the forum were able to register in the police department’s public Narcan program and receive a kit with two doses of the medication, which can be sprayed into an overdose victim’s nostrils.
Narcan training classes are coming up Want to learn how to use Narcan, the medication that stops an opioid overdose in its tracks? Training courses are taking place across Suffolk County over the next couple of months, including in Port Jefferson and in neighboring Centereach.
Narcan, the brand name of naloxone, blocks receptors in the brain to stop overdoses of drugs like heroin, Vicodin, Percocet, OxyContin or Demerol, among others. It can be administered through a nasal spray and will not cause harm if mistakenly given to someone who is not suffering an opioid overdose.
The local training sessions meet state health requirements, according to the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, and will teach trainees to recognize opioid overdoses, to administer Narcan and to take other steps until emergency medical personnel arrive on the scene. All participants will receive a certificate of completion and an emergency kit that includes Narcan.
The first course will be held on Monday, Dec. 14, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the county’s Office of Health Education in Hauppauge, at 725 Veterans Highway, Building C928. RSVP to 631-853-4017 or [email protected].
In Centereach, a course will take place on Friday, Jan. 15, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Middle Country library at 101 Eastwood Blvd. RSVP before Jan. 11 at [email protected]or at 631-585-9393 ext. 213.
Later that month, Hope House Ministries will host another Narcan training session in its facility at 1 High St. in Port Jefferson, in the Sister Aimee Room. That event, held in conjunction with the Port Jefferson ambulance company, will take place on Thursday, Jan. 28, at 10 a.m. Call 631-928-2377 for more information or register at https://pjvac.enrollware.com/enroll?id=952865.
Lisa Lally, above, hands out Miller Place sports T-shirts. Photo from Lally
By Clayton Collier
Before Lisa Lally retired last month, the longtime Miller Place athletic director had some parting words of advice for her successor.
“She said to remember to find time for family and make time for myself along the way,” said Ron Petrie, current Miller Place athletic director and head football coach. “It’s a very easy job to get lost in.”
Lisa Lally, above, hands out Miller Place sports T-shirts. Photo from Lally
The 2010 Section XI Athletic Director of the Year said it was for a similar reason that she decided to retire from the position she held for 13 years.
“You are problem solving constantly,” Lally said. “I enjoy that, but I think it requires a tremendous amount of focus and a tremendous amount of time away from other aspects of your life, and I think I was ready to focus in on other things.”
Deputy Superintendent Seth Lipshie, who has known Lally for more than 25 years, said his longtime co-worker’s efforts did not go unnoticed at Miller Place.
“In athletics, Lisa has incorporated a strong emphasis on sportsmanship while striving to be successful in competition,” he said. “The thing that drove Lisa the most was her priority she placed on what is in the best interest of the student-athlete. She derived as much pleasure in the success of her coaches and players as anyone in Miller Place.”
Nearly 150 people attended Lally’s retirement reception on October 27 at Willow Creek in Mount Sinai. Petrie said attendees included a wide variety of current and former colleagues from her more than 30 years with the district.
“It was a really nice event to celebrate not just her time here working, but also the life that she leads and the respect that she has gained over that period of time,” Petrie said.
Lally grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, playing basketball and softball in high school, after the passage of Title IX before her freshman year, and won the 1978 female athlete of the year at Greenwich High School.
Lally graduated from Southern Connecticut State College in May 1982, with a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education. That summer, Lally moved to Long Island and soon began working as a substitute teacher and the junior varsity girls’ basketball coach at Miller Place. By September 1983, Lally had earned a full-time physical education teaching position.
She also coached field hockey, softball and volleyball in her career with Miller Place, but she indisputably had the most success coaching basketball, being named coach of the year five times — three times with the JV team and twice with varsity, winning the league championship in each of her last two years as coach.
In July 2002, Lally was named an assistant principal at Miller Place High School, a position she said did not suit her well.
“I was out of my comfort area in a lot of respects,” she said. “I was being asked to oversee a lot of areas that I did not feel I had working knowledge about.”
So when the position of athletic director became available just two months later, Lally saw an opportunity to move to a field she felt more comfortable in. Still, Lally said she had her hesitations in making such a “big leap” to athletic director, or the “right leap” as she describes it looking back.
“I was afraid of the job itself, initially,” Lally said. “Like wow, this is big. But I also knew it was part of my bloodline; it was who I was; it was something I knew.”
Every job comes with its own challenges, and an athletic director certainly is no exception. Lally said the most difficult part of her job early on was having to cut costs.
“Athletics, while it’s a very vital part of our school community, it’s also one of those areas that can be cut, because it’s not mandated,” she said. “So learning how to cut lots and lots of money out of a program without annihilating an entire program; it was very, very difficult.”
Petrie, who had the opportunity to observe Lally’s work in his roles as both the football coach and the assistant athletic director, said she was balanced to all athletic programs, both large and small.
“If we couldn’t afford to go out and get a high-end piece of equipment or put off getting new jerseys for a year or so, it was understood because nobody else was getting it,” he said. “It was pretty flat across the board and she was fair with it. I never felt we were being overlooked or not prioritized.”
It was that approach that Petrie said earned Lally respect amongst her peers in the district.
“Fairness was something that was always associated with how Lisa handled things,” he said. “She made sure that all kids were considered in any decision she was making.”
Lally’s involvement in high school athletics has not just been limited to Miller Place school district. Lally served on the Section XI executive board from 2003 until this past fall, and was president from 2006 to 2008. Lipshie said Lally’s service on the Section XI board provided a great benefit to the advancement of the Miller Place athletic department.
“She has been deeply involved in athletics on both the county and the state level, serving as the section president and the section representative on the state level,” he said. “Through Lisa, Miller Place has had a voice on legislation and has provided Miller Place with the most current information that impacts our student-athletes.”
With several construction projects and new facilities being put in place at the time of her retirement, Miller Place school district had Lally and Petrie work alongside one another beginning in July. It was through this time, as well as Petrie’s tenure as the football coach, that Lally said makes her confident in Petrie as her successor.
“We’ve been together through some really high points and some real low points, and I think you learn about a person’s character during those low points,” she said. “Frankly, his stock has only gone up over these past four months. Watching him making decisions and dealing with staff and students, I think he is going to be terrific, and I think he is going to bring the program to a level I hadn’t even thought about.”
Though retired, Lally hasn’t completely separated herself from involvement in athletic administration, regularly teaching a required course on Section XI. In doing so, Lally says she can enjoy her time with family, while also still making an impact.
“I’m keeping my feet in the game, but not quite as actively as I had in the past,” she said. “I’m not looking to just wither on the vine. I can pick and choose what I’m involved with; we’ll see how this retirement thing works out.”
Joanna Cadolino, English chair at P.J. Gelinas Junior High School, talks about the future of Three Village’s teaching strategies of less memorization and more critical thinking. Photo by Andrea Moore Paldy
A common theme regularly voiced by Three Village educators is the desire to produce “lifelong learners,” and its emphasis was underscored by English language arts educators during a recent school board meeting.
While the “Literature to Literacy” presentation by the district’s secondary level English chairs outlined changes to the English curriculum in the continued alignment to Common Core Learning Standards, Ward Melville High School English chair Brian McAuliffe noted that some are not new to Three Village.
Developing student vocabulary, along with an emphasis on close readings and critical thinking, are skills that are being developed in all disciplines, particularly in social studies and science, he said.
“In effect, we are all literacy teachers,” McAuliffe said.
He told the school board that students will be reading a balanced amount of fiction and nonfiction across the entire academic curriculum, adding that teachers “are very loathe to give up their beloved literature, and they don’t have to.”
The difference is that units will no longer be defined by one text — rather they will focus more on “intertextuality.” That means students will work with a central or “fulcrum text,” such as a novel, that will be supplemented by “texture” texts like poetry and nonfiction reading.
Those who attended the board meeting also heard that there would be an emphasis on close readings and the use of evidence from texts to support assertions and analysis. Students will also learn to analyze and write arguments, as well as deconstruct texts using literary and rhetorical devices, develop oral communication skills and be taught proper grammar and punctuation.
The emphasis on written skills is supported by the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Writing from kindergarten to the eighth grade. Cathy Duffy, chair of English at R.C. Murphy Junior High, said this is the second year that the seventh and eighth grades are using the program. Students will have opportunities to practice writing, receive feedback and do revisions so that, at the end of the school year, they will have a portfolio of their three major writing projects. The portfolio will be passed on to the next teacher, who will use it to assess where the student’s writing focus should be for the coming year, Duffy explained.
In addition to final exams and the ELA state assessments, seventh and eighth graders will take a Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) assessment. It is a computer-based test that allows teachers to monitor students’ reading comprehension and select appropriate reading material.
Joanna Cadolino, English chair at P.J. Gelinas Junior High School, added that for ninth graders, the curriculum would continue to move away from memorization and toward more critical thinking. Additionally, ninth graders will explore speech writing, public speaking and research writing, which will require the evaluation and synthesis of source material at the honors level.
McAuliffe said that this year’s junior class would be the first to take the new English Regents exam. Changes include longer, more complex texts, as well as a section in which students will have to take a position on an argument and support it with evidence from provided texts.
Though he noted “a great deal of uncertainty” about the new exam, he said he was optimistic.
“We’re not working in isolation,” he said, adding that students have had good preparation from the previous grades.
The increased rigor of Regents-level courses will mean that Ward Melville will no longer offer an 11th grade Honors ELA class.
Students can take either a Regents-level course, or AP English Language and Composition.
The high school will also offer new electives, including news literacy, poetry of hip hop and sports literature.
Port Jefferson is fighting to keep property tax revenue flowing from the power plant and to prevent restrictions from being lifted on peaker unit output. File photo by Lee Lutz
The Port Jefferson school district has climbed aboard a lawsuit against the Long Island Power Authority that challenges the utility’s efforts to reduce its property taxes at North Shore power plants.
LIPA has been working for the last several years to significantly reduce taxes at the aging Port Jefferson and Northport plants, saying the facilities are grossly over-assessed and force the utility to pay more in property taxes than it should. But the school board voted on Nov. 24 to join a lawsuit filed by the Town of Huntington and the Northport-East Northport school district that disputes LIPA’s legal right to file its tax challenges, claiming they are a breach of contract.
That argument stems from a 1997 letter from former LIPA Chairman Richard Kessel, in which Kessel said the utility would not file property tax challenges in the future “on any of their respective properties at any time in the future unless a municipality abusively increases its assessment rate.”
The “respective properties” referenced include the Port Jefferson and Northport power plants, which are owned and operated by energy company National Grid. That company sells the energy it produces to the Long Island utility.
In Port Jefferson, the power plant’s property taxes provide much support to the school district, accounting for almost half of its budget, making the potential loss of that revenue a serious issue for the district.
The Port Jefferson Village government is in a similar position, funding about one-third of its budget with power plant taxes. Smaller stakeholders include the Port Jefferson fire and library districts and the Town of Brookhaven.
In an announcement posted on its website last week, the Port Jefferson school district said, “Our decision to join this lawsuit is a necessary step to protect the resources of our school district and the financial stability of our taxpayers.”
Before the Port Jefferson school district joined the lawsuit, LIPA had filed a motion to dismiss it, but New York State’s highest court denied that motion earlier this year and allowed the case to move forward.
At that time, a LIPA spokesperson said the utility does not comment on ongoing litigation.
After the utility’s motion to dismiss was denied — representing a small victory for those fighting LIPA’s tax challenges — Port Jefferson Village filed a separate lawsuit in September that alleges the same breach of contract as the schools’ lawsuit. Village Attorney Brian Egan requested that court action on LIPA’s tax challenges, which are still pending in the court system, be delayed until the new lawsuits are resolved.
If the plaintiffs win their arguments, the pending tax challenges would be thrown out.
According to Egan, however, the lawsuits are now facing a new motion to dismiss, this time from National Grid.
Superintendent Michael Ring discusses the NYS Comptroller’s report with local residents. Photo by Giselle Barkley
Despite the New York State Comptroller’s audit report, Rocky Point school district is sticking to their guns.
Last week, on Nov. 19, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released completed audits of four school districts, including Rocky Point. In the audit, he claimed that the school district exceeded the four percent statutory limit on its fund balance between July 1, 2013 and March 31 of this year.
According to the audit, during the 2009-10 to 2013-14 fiscal years, the Board at the time had accumulated $13.1 million. However, the district only used $1.2 million, and experienced a surplus in their unrestricted fund balance. Rocky Point’s Superintendent, Michael Ring, said this fund is utilized in emergency situations where the district cannot afford necessary expenditures — this includes funding programs or accommodating a special needs child, among other reasons.
Ring refuted the comptroller’s financial report.
“Bottom line for us is that if we were over the four percent, our external auditors would be required to report that,” Ring said in a phone interview.
But the Superintendent said no such claims were filed. He added that the Comptroller’s odd method of counting the school’s fund balance is unusual, as excess money from one school year is added to the previous year’s closing bonds.
Ring mentioned that the Comptroller acknowledged the district’s fund balance was below four percent within that time period. Now, the district is between 5.4 to 7.8 percent, according to the Comptroller’s report. Taxpayer dollars contribute to the district’s unregistered fund balance. An excess of money in this fund means taxpayer dollars go to waste. Ring assured meeting attendees that is not the case for the district.
For Rocky Point school board members, acquiring funds for the unrestricted fund balance is a guessing game. The school district must base their fund balance amount on possible future expenditures that the school may not be able to afford without this fund balance. Typically, the district budgets its money conservatively. The district’s actual expenditures are within 0.2 percent of what they budgeted.
Some community members weren’t phased by the Comptroller’s report. When asked about it, Rocky Point resident Mary Heely said she was surprised by the news. She stood by the Superintendent’s word that the district didn’t exceed the statutory limit of its unrestricted fund balance. With the failure of the district’s bond, Heely, like some other community members, had other financial issues on her mind.
“According to Mr. Callahan,” said Heely, referring to Rocky Point Board of Education member Sean Callahan, “we may be in serious trouble if there was a major event in this district. I think that’s the bigger concern at this point, as far as the lack of funds that could be necessary in the future.”
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