North Fork Schools Get Some Good News

With school districts scrambling to prepare budgets that come in under the state's two percent tax cap, state lawmakers have agreed to increase state aid to schools on the whole, though a couple of North Fork districts will see a drop compared to last year.

The State Legislature approved an $805 million increase in state aid on Thursday as part of the 2012-2013 budget. It is the first increase in three years.

Four of six districts across the North Fork will see a boost in aid, ranging from $643 to over $70,000. Two more - Oysterponds and Southold - didn't fare quite as well.

North Fork Assemblyman Dan Losquadro, R-Shoreham, said on Monday the drop in aid to Oysterponds and Southold came as a result of losing aid in high-cost categories such as BOCES and special education aid, as the districts lose students who needed the extra funding. On the whole, the distrcit actually gained funding in other categories, he said. But because of the relatively small size of the school districts, the loss in aid for those students put overall aid for the districts in the red.

Neighboring  will receive a , or about $907,500. 

According to reports, Gov. Andrew Cuomo wanted to allocate $250 million for competitive grants, though lawmakers were able to lower that number to $50 million, freeing up $200 million to be spread across the state.

"I've received a few calls from superintendents and school officials so far today thanking us for the work we did up here, which was nice," said Losquadro, last Friday. "I don't think any geographic area of the state was entirely happy, but this is a much better balance given the economic constraints we have now."