Rockville Centre to get more school aid

Under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2014-15 budget, the Rockville Centre School District would see a total increase in state aid of about $1.2 million.

If the budget is passed as-is, the district would receive $255,511 more in general state aid than it did in the current budget year, bringing the total to just under $8.37 million. That represents about 8.3 percent of the districts $100 million budget.

“Any increase in aid will help the district,” said Robert Bartels, the district’s assistant superintendent for business. “It’s not going to have a tremendously large impact on our budget.”

The larger increase in aid comes from a new program the governor proposed, the Smart Schools Bond Act — a $2 billion bond that New York residents would vote on in November. The money from the program would be earmarked for technology improvements in schools — purchasing equipment like iPads or computers, improving technology infrastructure and more. Under this plan, Rockville Centre would receive about $940,000.

“For us, it would probably be more in the form of iPads, since our infrastructure is, for the most part, complete,” Bartels said. “There may be some enhancements we can make with this money.”