BEACON RECORD The Village
Mount Sinai • Miller Place • Sound Beach • rocky Point • ShorehaM • Wading river • leiSure country april 2, 2015
volume 30, no. 36
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State’s budget comes with new ed. regulations
Education aid numbers finally released By erika karP
Just a few hours before the New York State Legislature approved the state’s 2015-16 budget, which includes a number of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s education reform initiatives, school districts across the North Shore finally got to know how much aid they’ll receive next year. The state aid runs showed districts getting more than they expected, since many budgeted around a 1.7 percent increase. Earlier this year, Cuomo (D) announced state aid would only increase by $377 million — a 1.7
Roller skating comes to Port Jeff Also: ‘Go Ape’ winners, ‘A Chorus Line’ in Northport, Disney Week at SCPA
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percent increase from this year — if his state education reforms didn’t pass the Legislature. And while not all of the initiatives passed, a few did, so the aid increased by about $1.4 billion statewide. “This is a plan that keeps spending under 2 percent, reforms New York’s education bureaucracy, implements the nation’s strongest and most comprehensive disclosure laws for public officials and makes the largest investment in the upstate economy in a generation,” Cuomo said in a statement. EDUCATION continued on page A9 File photo by Erika Karp
a few of gov. andrew cuomo’s, left, education reforms were approved.
Bellone maps out county’s future
Suffolk County Executive delivers annual address in Hauppauge
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Miller Place BOE adopts budget Retirement incentive offered to teachers By BarBara donlon
Eight veteran teachers from the Miller Place school district will take advantage of a recently approved retirement incentive, according to district Superintendent Marianne Higuera. The teachers are set to retire at the end of this school year, and will be given a one-time lump sum of $20,000, according to the agreement reached between the district and the Miller Place Teachers Association at the end of February. “We wish them the best as they begin to not set their alarm clock,” Higuera said in
an interview following a March 25 school board meeting. In order to receive the incentive, the teachers must be at least 55 years old, a full-time salaried district employee and have served a minimum of 10 years in the district and the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System. They’ll be eligible to receive any applicable contractual retirement benefit, as well. According to Higuera, the school district plans on replacing each position with a new hire as long as the budget, which the school board adopted on March 25, is approved.
File photo by Barbara Donlon
School board members listen to a presentation at a previous meeting.
While she wouldn’t name the teachers retiring, Higuera said they work in the art, music, speech and elementary fields. It is unclear what sort of savings, if any, the district will enjoy from the retirements. The adopted 2015-16 budget,
which will be up for a vote on May 19, stays within the district’s tax levy increase cap of 2.85 percent. If the district’s total assessed property value stays flat, residents will see a tax rate MILLER PLACE continued on page A13