Massapapequa BoE Passes Nassau BOCES Budget

The Massapequa Board of Education unanimously voted to pass the district's share of the proposed Nassau BOCES Administrative Operations budget for the 2011-2012 school year.

The vote came at a special meeting of the school board held Wednesday morning. The Massapequa district's share came in at a total of $18,947,178. That's an increase of 1.5 percent over last year, according to Massapequa deputy superintendent Alan C. Adcock.

But Massapequa's approval is just the beginning a county-wide process.

"By state law, their budget is funded by the component school districts in the County in which that BOCES operates," Adcock said.  "In Nassau County there are 56 school districts, and those 56 districts pay a share. The share amount is based on how many students each district has."

All 56 of those Nassau school districts cast their votes on the BOCES budget on Wednesday. The results weren't immediately known.

Adcock  also explained the breakdown of where the BOCES budget dollars are spent.

"The BOCES Administrative budget is really made up of three components," he said. "First, there's the Administrative Operations of BOCES, such as the superintendent's office, the business office, the purchasing office, and payroll. Next, their rental of facilities; because Nassau BOCES was the last in New York State to be organized, in 1967, there were very few vacant pieces of property for BOCES to obtain. So, a lot of their property is rented."

"And then the third area are the Capital Projects and Debt Service," Adcock continued. "Those would be on buildings that BOCES owns, or buildings where they have significant long-term leases...they pay a portion, or the whole amount, of any capital improvements."

Massapequa superintendent Charles  Sulc said that, in light of the current economic climate, he feels BOCES did solid work on constructing their budget this year.

"I think that they were fiscally conservative," he said. "They basically had the same constraints that every other school district in the state has had, and as a result, they came through with an administrative budget that under that a tax cap would have been, which was important. I think they did a good job."

All Nassau school districts, including Massapequa, also had to had vote on the re-election of three BOCES board members: Deborah Coates, Eric Schultz, and Stephen B. Witt. All three were were running unopposed.

Sulc noted that BOCES board members, unlike regular school board members, are appointed by the component school districts.

"There are nine members on the BOCES Board of Education," he said. "Those members on that board are members of Boards of Education in other school districts where they are voted in by that particular school district."