The Roslyn Board of Education held another public meeting last Thursday night to discuss its proposed 2005-2006 budget.

At the meeting, the board agreed to offer the public a budget that totals $80,474,982, one whose fate will be decided at the Tuesday, May 17 vote.

Also on that date, residents of the Roslyn School District will vote on Proposition 3, a capital improvement fund; the school board election; and the Bryant Library budget.

Four candidates are running for the three open school board seats. In the order that they will appear on the ballot, the candidates are: Meryl Waxman Ben-Levy, Clifford Saffron, Jeffrey Borowick, and Jeffrey Sapper.

One current board member, William Costigan will not be running for re-election, while another former member, Pat Schissel, has been removed from the board. And so, three, rather than just two seats are being contested.

The two top vote getters in the May 17 election will, beginning on July 1, each serve three-year terms. The third highest vote getter will immediately begin serving the remainder of Ms. Schissel's term, which will last until June 2006.

On Wednesday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m., there will be a "Meet the Candidates" night at the Helen Glannon Room of the Bryant Library. The United Civics of East Hills is sponsoring the meeting.

The capital plan to be voted on will amount to $5.1 million. If approved, the money would be transferred from the school's fund balance to the capital account.

The Bryant Library will present a budget that amounts to $3,954,480.

At the meeting, Stanley Stern, the school board president, emphasized that the money from Proposition 3 is not an addition to the school budget. Nor would the monies increase property taxes, school officials said. Stern said the funds, if approved, would be used for improvements to various school buildings that Stern said are "sorely needed."

The $80 million budget represents a 3.14 percent increase over last year's budget, plus a 4.27 percent tax levy increase. It also represents a reduction from an earlier draft of the proposed 2005-06 budget.

In February, the board had put together a budget that called for over $83 million in spending. By mid-April, the board estimated that several new teaching positions would be needed in various schools throughout the district, which itself added $570,000 to the working budget.

Finally, at the April 20 meeting, the board had found $3.6 million in reductions from its working budget.

At the meeting, Stanley Stern noted that the board had conducted "many, many attempts to have [public] input in the budget."

The "adjusted additions" to the 2005-06 budget included hiring a middle school teacher, a special education teacher at the East Hills School, and a high school teacher. David Helme, superintendent of the school district, cited increased enrollment as a main reason for the need to hire new teachers.

On the reduction side, the board found savings from a variety of places. At the meeting, Helme noted that while contemplating the purchase of four school buses, the board decided that two buses were needed for safety reasons, but that the other two could be eliminated without any compromises to student safety. And so, savings in "bus service deferral" amounted to $160,000.

Other savings were found in a Workmen's Compensation adjustment ($285,000), Materials & Supplies ($396,175), Summer School program modification ($259,067), Computer network deferred maintenance ($100,000), Reduction in Part Time bus driver compensation ($100,000), Technology Director (K-12) ($140,000), Teacher assistant reductions ($280,000), Security adjustment ($150,000), and FLES (the Elementary Foreign Language Program) with savings of $220,000.

School officials note that if a budget is defeated, the school board can either put up the same budget for a second vote, present a new budget to voters, or adopt a contingency budget. If a budget is defeated for a second time, a contingency budget must be adopted. School officials said that a contingent budget cap for this year, as determined by New York State law, would be 3.24 percent.

On Tuesday, May 17, voting will take place from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Roslyn High School.

Also at the meeting, the board honored Jessica Cohen, a Roslyn High School senior who recently was named a first place winner in the Young Epidemiology Scholars (YES) competition, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The award includes a $50,000 scholarship, which Ms. Cohen plans to use when she matriculates at Columbia University next fall.