February 2, 2012

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Dear Valley Stream 30 Community, 

Budget Update
Yesterday, the District Budget Forum was held.  Lisa Rutkoske, Valley Stream 30 Assistant Superintendent for Business, presented information regarding the new tax levy cap and how it affected the creation of the proposed Valley Stream 30 budget.  The budget is developed to stay within the new tax levy cap. By staying within the tax levy cap, the District will only be required to have a simple majority (50% plus one vote) for the budget to pass. Setting a higher tax levy would require the District to have a super-majority in order to pass the budget.  The Board and District recognize the challenges our Valley Stream 30 taxpayers face in these difficult financial times by staying within the tax levy cap and working to keep costs low.

In order to meet the challenges of staying within the tax levy cap and still providing our students with the programs they need, the process by which the Budget was developed and recommended to the Board was shared last evening at the Forum.  As in most recent years, with the increasingly-challenging financial environment, the District has worked hard to try to maximize efficiencies in order to continue to be able to deliver program to students as fiscally responsibly as possible, once again, in the 2012-13 budget.  While the proposed budget includes staff reduction in ESL, Social Work and Technology, services have been realigned, through existing resources, to ensure that students will still receive similar program, but in a different way.  Additionally, we are pleased that the proposed budget maintains full-time kindergarten, our full music, art, band and instrumental program, as well as our academic intervention and enrichment programs.  It also provides new resources to help our students achieve the challenging new standards of the Common Core Curriculum to be implemented statewide next year.

Budget is an agenda item at the February 13th Work Session and the February 27th Board meeting.  If you have any questions, or would like specific information, please do not hesitate to contact Lisa Rutkoske at 285-9881, x224 or me, Elaine Kanas at 285-9881, x222.  Or, email us at either lrutkoske@vs30.org or ekanas@vs30.org.  If you would like to speak with us, and it is difficult for you to do so during the day, just leave that message and we can call you back in the evening.  All budget information, including the PowerPoint from the Budget Forum can be found on our website at www.valleystream30.com.

Family Activity
We are fortunate that our area offers rich resources for enrichment.  As time and space permit, we will attempt to share some opportunities with you.  Listed below is an upcoming event that may be of interest to you.     




Sincerely,

Elaine Kanas, Ed.D.