Serving Williston Park, East Williston, Mineola, Albertson and Searingtown
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Friday, March 12, 2021
Vol. 70, No. 11
CO-PRESIDENTS NAMED FOR CALLS FOR CUOMO NON-PROFITS TOWN HALL FOCUS CHAMBER OF WILLISTONS TO RESIGN INCREASE PAGE 7
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Mineola ed board drafts $103.8M budget
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COMMISSIONER READER
2.98% increase based in part on expectation that state aid to rise BY K AT I E F E N T O N Mineola’s Board of Education plans to propose a $103,864,388 budget for the 2021-22 school year. The draft budget, revealed at a Feb. 25 meeting, is 2.98 percent above the $100,859,780 budget for 2020-21 and comes with a tax levy increase of 0.05 percent. The bulk of the change comes from a 0.64 percent increase in salaries to $53,780,126 and a 0.83 percent increase in benefits to $24,283,000. The increase in benefits is primarily driven by a rise in health costs, which increased by 1.5 percent. The board expects state aid to go back up to $7,700,000, partly accounting for the increased budget. However, a significant part of the increase comes from the district’s sale of a portion of the broadcast spectrum, once used for educational broadcasting at the high school, to Nextel, resulting in $9 million to be spent on Mine-
ola schools. Dr. Michael Nagler, the school superintendent, explained the implications of the sale. “I was under the impression when we sold that we could put that $9 million in a reserve and take money out every year to match the money we would lose in revenue … We’d space it out over time,” Nagler said. “Because it is not real property, we cannot put in a reserve fund. So right now, it’s sitting in our fund balance – our savings account, if you want to look at it that way – and we have to spend it.” Nagler suggested that the money should go toward renovating Jackson Avenue School rather than other budget costs. “The big problem with fund balance is that it’s cash. You shouldn’t be spending it on salaries or benefits, because once you spend it, it’s gone,” he said. “If you put it in your budget as an expense line, where are you getting the money next year?” Continued on Page 27
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NASSAU COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder took time to read to first-graders from the Garden City Park Elementary School.
1 dead, 1 seriously injured in NHP crash BY R OB E RT PELAEZ
sau County Police Department. Detectives said a 2008 Chevy Impala struck multiple utility A one-car crash in New Hyde poles while traveling east on HillPark killed one person and seri- side Avenue Friday morning. The car, according to offiously injured another last Friday morning, according to the Nas- cials, came to a stop near the in-
tersection of Hillside Avenue and Devonshire Drive. Photos from the incident show the back of the car elevated several feet off the ground while the front had struck a tree. Continued on Page 28
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