Westbury residents got their first look at the school district’s budget plans Tuesday, March 18.
The board focused on projects and plans to fund using next year’s budget. Superintendent Tahira A. DuPree Chase said the board will present the district’s proposed total budget number, tax levy increase and more detailed numbers at its next budget meeting on Tuesday, March 25.
Chase said the district planned to continue all current programs and expand a handful, including its summer school offerings, popular Saturday school program and STRIVE program, under the proposed budget. The STRIVE program supports students with learning disabilities or other special needs who are being educated within the district instead of being placed at non-district private schools.
The proposed budget would also include funding for more field trips, including a trip to Philadelphia for fifth-grade students, and expanded opportunities for clubs and courses to travel abroad. Board members said these opportunities would provide students with opportunities to grow as leaders and global citizens.
Notable proposed capital projects, or facility upgrades, the board discussed included a playground for Park Avenue Elementary, band room renovations in the district’s high school, new gym mats in Dryden Street Elementary and bathroom, floor and ceiling renovations across the district’s other schools.
Chase and other board members said the district was able to improve its academic programs, provide students with new opportunities, begin offering IB diplomas in 2026, improve district security and upgrade district buildings because the community voted in support of the district’s budget last year.
She said she looks forward to implementing continued improvements to the district’s schools if the board receives another supporting budget vote this year.
Future budget meetings include an informational session on March 25, a budget adoption meeting on April 8 and a budget hearing on May 6 before the district-wide vote on May 20.
In other news, the board also used the Tuesday night meeting to honor dozens of high-achieving students.
Chase presented certificates of achievement to the high school’s debate team, which recently competed at a tournament in Harvard. Coach Stephen Forker said it was the team’s first time competing at the prestigious competition.
Forker said that he and his debaters were told to temper their expectations, as public schools competing the first time typically struggled. However, his team won six debates and nearly qualified for the playoffs, which he and his students said set a precedent for the district at future competitions.
When speaking at the meeting, he wore a Harvard quarter-zip, which he said the debate team pitched in to give him after the tournament.
Nearly 30 students were also honored as All County musicians. Four students were named as part of the Long Island String Festival Association, 11 earned a place in the Nassau-Suffolk Wind Symphony and two were placed in the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. The two students in the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra will perform in Carnegie Hall on May 18.
The district also honored a handful of high school swimmers who earned grade point averages above 90 for their accomplishments in and out of the pool.
“In the academics, the athletics, the arts, we have scholars that are truly performing at the highest level here at Westbury School District,” Chase said. “We are so proud of all that is happening here in our school district, and we look forward to more great things happening.”
