West Islip Schools to Receive More State Aid Than Expected

Last week New York State legislators passed a budget that will result in significantly more aid for local schools. West Islip will receive $736,613 more in extra funds for the 2012-2013 school year than .

West Islip's original estimate of $29,433,175 was increased to $30,169,788. The additional aid includes more than $133,000 in foundation aid and more than $600,000 in the gap elimination adjustment. The approved aid numbers, released on March 30th, also show that the district will receive $1.1 million more than in the .

Superintendent Richard Simon with the amount of state aid allotted to the district in January.

Governor Cuomo's original January budget included plans to allocate money to districts through competitive grants that will now go instead to increased need-based aid. Changes to the final budget added $200 million, with a total annual increase in aid of $800 million allocated to schools across New York State.

There is no indication yet how the new numbers will affect this year's West Islip school budget, which includes and dance programs. The proposed budget will be adopted on April 18 and the vote is scheduled for May 15.

Babylon Village Editor Jacqueline Sweet contributed to this article.