2013-14 Budget
The first Budget Workshop took place on Wednesday, Feb. 27, in Room 450 of The Wheatley School. Jacqueline Fitzpatrick, assistant superintendent for Business and I shared an overview of the proposed budget for the 2013-14 school year as well as detailed information about the administrative and capital components.
The specifics of the challenges the district faces this year were shared. In order to stay within the allowable property tax levy cap, the district needed to cut $2 million from our current program. To rise to this challenge, the proposed 2013-14 budget focuses on continued educational excellence within year two of the property tax levy cap by realigning resources, restructuring program delivery, leveraging educational grants and participating in cost sharing with other districts.
The proposed budget represents a 3.15 percent increase over the 2012-13 budget and a proposed tax levy increase of 3.23 percent which falls below our allowable tax levy cap. [See the Budget Overview presentation at pages 21-26 on the district website at www.ewsdonline.org > click on the 13-14 Budget Info in the News box.] The proposed budget was designed to (i) maintain current class sizes, (ii) maintain academic course offerings, (iii) maintain co-curricular opportunities for students including clubs and athletics and (iv) continue student support services.
The district principals will present the program component of the budget in their individual school budgets at the next Budget Workshop #2 on Wednesday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m. in Room 450 of The Wheatley School.
A line-by-line budget review will be held at Budget Workshop #3 on Saturday, March 9 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. If you cannot attend this workshop, it will be live streamed on the district website. You will be able to participate by submitting questions as well.
On Wednesday, March 13, Budget Workshop #4 will highlight the special education, athletics and technology budgets. This workshop will take place at 7:30 p.m. directly after the district-wide Technology Fair held annually at Wheatley.
Board of education budget deliberations will take place on Wednesday, April 3 with final budget deliberations and adoption of the budget and property Tax Report Card taking place on Monday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m., Room 450 at Wheatley.
Please join us to share input and to be informed. All budget materials are continually updated and found on our website on the homepage or by clicking on the District tab > Departments > Business and Finance > Budget Info > 13-14 Budget Info. If you have questions or comments when reviewing budget material, contact Jacqueline Fitzpatrick, Assistant Superintendent for Business by email, fitzpatrickj@ewsdonline.org or by telephone at 333-1794 or contact me at kanase@ewsdonline.org or 333-3758.
New York State Education Advisory Panel
I was out of the district Monday and Tuesday, March 4 and 5, in Albany. Last year I was invited to sit on the New York State Education Department English Language Arts Advisory Panel and continue to serve this year. The panel consists of pre-K through college educators who advise the State Education Department on English Language Arts Curriculum and Common Core implementation. As always, I look forward to bringing back to our district and colleagues new insights gained as well as sharing our work here in the East Williston School District with panelist colleagues.
Strategic Planning
As we finalize the community survey for a March mailing, I wish to thank those of you who volunteered to “test drive” the survey. Your input was immeasurably valuable. The March survey will help the district prioritize goals for the next five years. We are working on changes to the survey in consideration of the input. We will have another “test drive” of the improved version before sending out to the community. I will again be asking for volunteers and will let you know when we are ready for our second “test drive.”
Wheatley Science Research Program On the Move!
The high school is growing its Science Research Program under the direction of David Casamento, district director of Science and Technology, Thomas Van Bell, science research teacher and Wheatley’s administration.
This year, our science research program has developed from a before and after school program to a regularly scheduled course that meets for the entire school year. The program is comprised of two courses, Introduction to Science Research and Intermediate Science Research.
Currently we have 32 students enrolled in the Introduction class and 37 students in the Intermediate class. Topics covered in the introductory course include the research process, identifying a research topic, learning to read research articles, basic statistics, scientific writing and practice research.
In the intermediate course, students work with a professional mentor on identifying and executing their research project. Students also practice presenting their research findings to their class in preparation for a variety of competitions that include Siemens, Intel, International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) and various local competitions.
Congratulations to Aakash Jhaveri, Allison Chowdhury, Jamie Brensilber and Lauren Perry who have advanced to the second round of the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair (LISEF); Kuan Yu who was selected to present his research at Stony Brook’s Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) competition; and Allison who has published an article in a science journal, Tetrahedron.
We wish our young scientists well and look forward to our students’ successes in future competitions in coming years as we continue to grow our Science Research program.
Upcoming Events
Change in Calendar: The Wheatley PTO Meeting originally scheduled for Monday, March 4 has been rescheduled to Tuesday, March 12 at 8 p.m.
The Wheatley Book Club is holding its Second Annual Paperback Book Swap on March 21-22. You can bring in slightly used (no more than 20) paperback books and swap them for other paperbacks. Gently used children’s, teens and adult paperbacks are welcome.
