East Meadow 2020-21 School Budget, Hearing: What To Know

EAST MEADOW, NY — Residents of the East Meadow School District will vote by absentee ballot this year on the district's proposed 2020-21 school budget, as well as elect the school board and library trustees.

All registered voters who live in the district's boundaries will receive an absentee ballot in the mail with a postage-paid return envelope, the district said. There will be no in-person voting. Ballots must be received by the district no later than 5 p.m. on June 9.

A virtual budget hearing is scheduled for May 27 at 7 p.m. Information about how residents can view the meeting will be posted on the district's website.

The East Meadow School District's proposed spending plan for the 2020-21 school year is $214,179,803. That's a 2.66 percent increase from the current budget.

To fund the increase, the district proposes a tax levy of $142,933,804, up 2.5 percent from the current year's, which the district says is within the tax cap.

This year's vote also includes a ballot measure to allow the district to increase the capital bond project that was originally approved by the community in March 2017 to include two artificial turf fields: one at East Meadow High School and one at W.T. Clarke High School. The project would cost an additional $2,582,080, the district said, and would come out to a tax increase of $12.69 a year for the average home.

Typically, the Board of Education adopts the budget and it is presented to the community about a month before the annual vote. Gov. Andrew Cuomo changed the voting process this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuomo warned that the economic effect of the shutdown imposed to curb the outbreak could mean much less money available for state education aid. The state will be assessing and adjusting its budget several times in the course of 2020. Cuomo's last estimate was that state aid could be 20 percent lower than already promised if the state does not receive federal aid.