The Roslyn Board of Education Thursday night was given a presentation on the revised $127.6 million tentative budget proposal and came to a consensus on two preliminary designs for a new scoreboard and midfield logo on a new synthetic turf field. 

Superintendent Alison Brown presented the second draft of the budget, which is a $5.4 million, or a 4.43% increase, in spending from last year.

Thursday night’s proposal was 0.08% less in spending than than in the first budget presentation, which was given on Feb. 16. 

The 2023-2024 proposed tax levy is 2.65%, which falls below the maximum levy limit of 3.01%. Any budget proposal that goes above the levy limit must be voted on by the district with a supermajority for approval. 

“The board has always said to not ever sacrifice programs, but we need to be sensitive to the community,” Brown said during her presentation. “We are prioritizing things that we want to do this year and moving things that we can do in years ahead.”

At Heights School, enrollment is projected to be 316 students, which would be 33 fewer than the current year. Brown said there will be no pre-Kindergarten at Heights since the district will have a fully funded Universal Pre-Kindergarten program for the upcoming school year. 

Universal Pre-Kindergarten, or UPK, gives families with preschool-aged children the opportunity to enroll their kids in a publicly funded care and education program.

The five-hour program will operate Monday to Friday at The Growing Tree Nursery School at 140 East Broadway. 

The program itself will come at no cost to Roslyn taxpayers, the district or the families and students enrolled. 

At East Hills School, enrollment projections show 537 total students, a 30-student decrease. Harbor Hill School is projected to have 561 students, a 28-student decline, and Roslyn Middle School is projected to have a total enrollment of 784, which is an increase of six students. 

The high school is projected to have 1,042 students, which would represent an increase of one student.

Brown said enrollment numbers are fluid and can change from now to September. 

The superintendent also gave a brief overview of the propositions the district will be voting on May 16, which includes renewing the district’s bus lease and expending $8 million from capital reserves for athletics upgrades.

The two propositions are half of the four the district will be voting on, which includes the school budget and the Bryant Library’s budget.

Proposition #3 would expend $560,000 to purchase various school buses and vans, which Brown said the district needs to keep them up-to-date and safe for students. 

Proposition #4 would expend $8 million from capital reserves to install seven tennis courts, replace perimeter fencing, replace the discus and shotput area, install new walkways, stairs and retaining walls, install a baseball and multi-use synthetic turf field with dugouts and a spectator pavilion, install lighting for the baseball field, upgrade all field drainage and high school classroom upgrades. 

The seven tennis courts would replace the current six tennis courts. 

District architects Ken Shupner and John Longo from BBS Architects gave a detailed presentation on proposition #4, which included an overview of what the project entails and what the board had as options for a logo at the midfield of the turf field, end zone designs and scoreboard layout. 

The board came to an unofficial consensus on using a blue-and-white “R” logo at midfield compared to a solid blue or solid white logo and also agreed to use the scoreboard that provided four player designations and penalty timers to help the officiating for lacrosse games. 

Longo said nothing had to be finalized as of Thursday night and if certain things had to be altered, such as the  “Roslyn Bulldogs” signage on top of the scoreboard which could be removed, they could do so. 

Reconstructing the baseball field and tennis courts would take place in the summer of 2024, Longo said.