Hicksville Public Schools officially received $500,000 in bullet aid to be used for the 2024-2025 calendar year.
Assemblymember Charles Lavine (D-North Shore) was in attendance for the district’s final Board of Education meeting of 2024 on Dec. 18. Board members formally accepted $500,000 in special funding that Lavine secured as part of the 2024-25 state budget. The budget for this school year had initially been passed in April.
“There is no better investment than public education,” Lavine said at the meeting. “I know that this money will be put to the best use possible and that is to strengthen what is already an accomplished school district with dedicated and caring educators who want nothing but the best for our children.”
Superintendent Theodore Fulton listed a number of ways that the additional funding would help the district.
“This generous grant will go towards vital improvements, including upgrading the middle school auditorium sound system, replacing the outdated electronic sign at the high school, repairing two needed fences at the two elementary schools, refreshing the stucco at the middle school, and enhancing the athletic facilities with new scoreboards and basketball court repairs,” he said at the board meeting.
The district also added that money will be set aside for the high school auditorium rear stage floor.
Lavine made sure to note that the funding was coming entirely from taxpayer money.
Lavine said that he spoke with the speaker of the Assembly, as well as the governor in order to receive the $500,000 in aid. These talks took place from August 2023 until the budget was passed in April, according to Lavine.
The Hicksville School District received nearly $2.5 million in additional funding for this academic year than it had for the 2023-24 school year. The newly received grant is a part of that 6% increase in foundation aid. Long Island schools were awarded over $5 billion in the $35.3 billion awarded to public school districts by the state.
Lavine has represented District 13 since 2005, earning another term in the 2024 election which will keep him in office until the end of 2026.
Lavine also represents the Roslyn, North Shore, Glen Cove, Locust Valley, Cold Spring Harbor, Syosset, Jericho, Plainview-Old Bethpage, Oyster Bay-East Norwich and Wesbury school districts.
