The votes are in and the school budget passed by a wide margin after the annual school budget vote held on May 17. The budget passed by a 76 percent rate with 722 voting yes and 222 voting no. Proposition 2, which is the Capital Reserve projects in the district passed by a rate of 78 percent.
In other board of education news, Assistant Superintendent for Finance, Stephen Valente, and Director of the Technology Department, Janna Ostroff, updated the community on the Smart Schools Investment Plan for School Connectivity. This plan is a grant from New York state for improving instructional technology in the classroom. It was approved by Governor Andrew Cuomo and allocates $45 million in funding toward 52 Smart Schools investment plans under the state’s $2 billion Smart Schools Bond Act.
The bond allocation for the Oyster Bay-East Norwich district for the Smart Schools Investment Plan is $250,537 with total cost of $212,980.41. Storage area networks, data network recovery and backup servers and installation are all part of the investment plan. Outdated networks and faster Internet wireless times are part of the rationale in spending money to increase staff and student productivity.
Ostroff said that the next steps in the process include revising and finalizing the Smart Schools Investment Plan and receiving the board’s approval to submit the plan for state approval.
“Once that’s completed, we’ll try to obtain review from the office of facilities planning and the business portal,” said Ostroff. “From there we’ll post the approved plan on the district website, implement the proposed plan and hopefully receive state reimbursement.”
The next board meeting is scheduled for June 14.
