"The governor's current school aid proposals, if adopted, will give no relief to the Roslyn property owner." So said David J. Helme, the interim superintendent of the Roslyn School District.

The comments were part of a summary of the proposed 2006-07 budget, one issued by Helme's office.

The Roslyn School District will be holding another budget hearing on Thursday, March 9. That hearing will center on a review of the Instructional Program segment of the budget. The meeting will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Administration Building Room.

Despite the problem of school aid and the large portion of the budget that must go to personnel matters, Helme is confident that the proposed budget and whatever form the final document takes will be seen as "part of the gradual, but dramatic, recovery from the recent district scandal in which millions of dollars were embezzled and the school district's financial protocols wantonly violated."

The superintendent's office has presented a budget that it claims will reflect a more "rational" and reliable budgetary approach.

"Budget codes have been reworked to reflect actual areas of expenditures as they should," the superintendent's summary stated. "Reserve funds and account balances have been confirmed following special audits authorized by the board of education and the budget's public format has been redesigned to move toward a more 'programmatic' and a more 'accessible' document."

The superintendent's budget is the result of two months of preparation and discussion among district staff members. It only represents a first draft of a budget that will eventually be voted on by the public this spring.

While acknowledging that over 80 percent of total expenditures go toward staffing compensation and benefits, the superintendent admits that some "important program proposals" are not funded in the preliminary budget. The district, for instance, may offer driver's education courses with a tuition charge. In addition, it may outsource or charge a fee for its summer program. The Foreign Language Elementary School program may be re-established in the form of instructional formats.

On the personnel side, the district must contend with employee benefits, plus state and federal mandates. That includes projected increases in the budgets for both the New York State Health Insurance Plan and the New York State Teachers Retirement System. A state mandated testing program, the summary said, has cost the district up to $50,000 in non-reimbursable dollars during this school year alone.

The superintendent's budget summary also notes that there will be an enrollment increase from 3,403 students to 3,519 students for the entire district, with most of the increase occurring in the high school and with the elementary school enrollments remaining "fairly stable."

The summary also maintains that the local economy remains "reasonably strong" even though the "regressive" property tax for school funding along with the recent property reassessment continues to place public schools "in the middle of a taxpayer firestorm."

In all, the preliminary budget, the superintendent states, will among other things, maintain current academic programs, continue long-term facility maintenance and capital programs, expand a school security plan, institute a cyclical process of curriculum review, develop and possibly implement a multiyear capital plan, and maintain a diversified co-curricular and athletic program.

In addition to the March 9 meeting, there will be budget hearings on March 16, March 23, March 25, and March 30. The latter meeting represents the final deliberations of the budget process. As with the March 9 meeting, all meetings, except one, are on Thursday and begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Administration Building Board Room. The March 25 meeting is on Saturday and lasts from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Thursday, April 6, the board will adopt the 2006-2007 budget.