Schools

Revised Comsewogue School Budget Overwhelmingly Passes

A revised budget passed on Tuesday night by a vote of 2,179 to 603.

After failing to garner enough votes for a supermajority last time around, the Comsewogue School District's has passed, avoiding an austerity budget for the upcoming school year that would have brought additional cuts to the district.

The budget passed by a vote of 2,179 to 603 on Tuesday night, school board member Lance Brown reported to Patch. The 78 percent "yes" vote was enough to carry a supermajority, something the previous budget did not do.

The original budget, which pierced the tax cap, was rejected by voters in May by a vote of 1514 to 1064, 59 percent, which was 1 percent shy of what was needed to pierce the tax cap.

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A total of 2,782 people voted in Tuesday night's election compared to 2,578 in May. That's 204 more people who showed up to vote this time around.

The passed budget is $78.3 million and comes with , an average cost to homeowners of $185 per year, and trims about $2.9 million from the previous budget. It also implements a controversial , saving the school district about $1 million.

Find out what's happening in Port Jeffersonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Princeton Plan calls for going from four grade K-5 buildings to two grade K-2 buildings ( and ) and two grade 3-5 buildings ( and ). The average elementary school class sizes are significantly reduced under the new organization. The average class size in grade K-2 will be 23 students. In grades 3-5 the average class size will be 26.

Click here to read .

Another cut in the budget held over from the previous version is in library services. Libraries will still be open in each elementary school five days a week, but one of those days an aide will run the library instead of a librarian. 

The librarian cuts and the Princeton Plan will be tweaked over the summer as needed depending on class sizes, according to school board member Lance Brown.

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