As residents of the Roslyn School District prepared for a vote on the revised budget, it was announced that Dr. Frank A. Tassone, the former superintendent, was arrested and charged with grand larceny, first degree.

Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon made the announcement this past Tuesday morning. Dr. Tassone was arraigned at the First District Court in Hempstead later that day.

According to Dillon, Dr. Tassone is accused of stealing in excess of $1 million from the District. Grand Larceny in the first degree is a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

"The charge filed today involves only the time period from May 11, 2000 to August 27, 2002," Dillon said on Tuesday. "During this time period, through manipulation of the District's accounting system, Tassone orchestrated payment for charges on credit cards issued by American Express, J.P Morgan Chase, and Citibank. The cards were used by Tassone and others for personal expenses such as airline travel, cruises, hotel and resort accommodations, dermatology treatments, furniture, jewelry and meals. To camouflage these payments, Tassone conspired with others to falsify the accounting records of the District."

Meanwhile, the vote on the revised Roslyn School District budget will take place on Tuesday, July 13 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Roslyn High School.

Residents will be voting on a $78,028,454 budget for the 2004-2005 school year.

The proposed budget represents a 3.34 percent increase in spending over last year's budget. It includes savings in salaries, "non-core" programs, operations, the lunch fund, and the district's retirement spending. Reductions in non-core programs will come from Science Enrichment programs, High School and Middle School co-curricular activities, the Second Grade swim program, Psychological and Social Work Services, and Special Education.

The revised budget was completed after school district officials, especially Anthony Annunziato, the new assistant superintendent for business, received input from staff and community residents through a budget advisory committee.

On Tuesday evening, July 6, the district held one final public hearing on the budget, a review of which will appear in next week's issue of The Roslyn News.

However, on Wednesday evening, June 30, another informal budget meeting was conducted by a group of local residents. The meeting was only the latest of several such meetings held in the past few weeks. According to Jeff Borowick, one of the meeting's organizers, about 150 people attended the meeting, which was held at the Roslyn High School auditorium.

The purpose of the meeting was simply an attempt to educate people on the specifics--and the importance--of the revised budget. Borowick said that while many in his group still see flaws in the revised budget, the new document does represent an effort by district officials to be "respectful of the community's needs."

Borowick also said that there is a sizable portion of the local population that is so angry with school board members that they are willing to vote down any budget, at least as long as current board members remain in office. Either way, another purpose of such meetings is to round up a significant number of volunteers who in turn will try to get the general public both involved in the budget debate and also at the polls on July 13.

"Because of a dramatic void in leadership by the board of education, volunteers have tried to assist the central administrators," Borowick said of the current budget process.

In addition to the budget vote, a referendum on making permanent the modifications to the mileage eligibility limits for school bus transportation will also be voted on.

The policy was revised several years ago to provide busing for all students K-8 and reduce mileage to one-half mile for students in grades 9-12 for the duration of the LIE construction. Reimbursement from New York State is expected to end in the current year.

According to school officials, the $80,000 annual cost will not increase the budget for 2004-05 because funds were re-allocated from other parts of the budget to cover the expense. If the referendum is not approved by voters, mileage guidelines for 2004-05 will return to those of the 1998-99 school year: kindergarten - 3/10 mile; grades 1 - 5 - 1/2 mile; grades 6 - 8 - 3/4 mile; grades 9-12 1 1/4 miles.

Both votes come as the personnel situation at the district remains in a state of flux, all as a result of the embezzlement scandal. In recent weeks, there have been resignations from the superintendent, the board of education's vice president, and another board member. In the May 18 election, two board members were up for re-election. One member decided not to run for re-election, while another ran and was defeated.

July 13 will be another court date for Pamela Gluckin, the school district employee whose alleged embezzlement of district funds started the entire scandal. At the June 23 meeting, a local resident claimed that Ms. Gluckin has not been decertified as a state teacher, at least according to the New York State Department of Education.

More recent revelations concern Debra Rigano, Ms. Gluckin's niece. Ms. Rigano was recently suspended from her position as a business clerk with the district.

According to published reports, Ms. Rigano's duties included booking travel trips for district employees. For that, district officials paid Ms. Rigano a modest stipend.

In addition to that, Ms. Rigano ended up working as an "outside agent" for Majestic Travel in Lindenhurst. Ms. Rigano would book district trips with Majestic. Published reports stated that the district did $172,524 worth of business with Majestic, which amounted to $8,626 in earnings for Ms. Rigano.

The findings are part of a thorough investigation by Nassau County officials to determine the destination of up to $7.8 million in what has been termed "suspicious expenses."