The Port TIMES RECORD Buying/Se
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Volume 29, No. 8
Ardolino.c Port Jefferson • Belle terre • Port Jefferson station • terrYVille om LongIslan dHomeCo January 21, 2016 nnection.c om
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631-941-4 300
Celebrating Long Island’s nature Also: ‘In the Heights’ at the CMPaC; winter farmer’s market
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Give us our money Schools applaud effort to nix state aid cuts BY Phil Corso
Fire stamps out post office
Building burns in downtown Port
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File photos
Sen. John Flanagan, at top, has put his weight behind a bill to restore state aid to school districts. legislators in albany, above, enacted cuts to that aid several years ago to help close a state budget deficit.
For New York schools, cutting the Gap Elimination Adjustment could be an addition by subtraction. The adjustment, a deduction taken out of each New York school district’s state aid, was enacted several years ago to help the state government close a budget deficit. While the amount deducted has decreased in recent years and there have been efforts to completely restore the funding, state Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) has recently sponsored legislation that would completely eliminate the system this year, giving more financial help to public schools struggling to make ends meet. The bill passed in the Senate and must make its way through the Assembly before heading to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D). And as schools across the state wait for the final vote, administrators applauded Flanagan’s
efforts in helping them restore their funding. “Over the past several years our district has been proactive in imploring our elected officials to restore the funds lost under the Gap Elimination Adjustment,” said Cheryl Pedisich, superintendent of schools for the Three Village Central School District. “As we enter our latest budget preparations, we are pleased at the news that this effort has taken an important step forward.” Port Jefferson Assistant Superintendent for Business Sean Leister was not as optimistic. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” he said during a budget presentation at a school board meeting last week. Leister is estimating a 6 percent increase in state aid next year, a number he called “conservative,” but if the adjustment is eliminated and Port Jefferson receives more state aid than it allots for in the budget, he said STaTe aID continued on page a13