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If you are an Eastport-South Manor School District staff member, community member, or vendor who does business with the District and you suspect fraud or financial abuse occurring within the District, you are encouraged to report said fraud or financial abuse to the New York State Comptroller’s Office at 1-800-672-4555 on weekdays between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Click here to view Board Policy 9645 - Disclosure of Wrongful Conduct

To be eligible to vote in a school district election, a person must:

• Be at least 18 years of age
• Be a resident of the school district for at least thirty days prior to May 21, 2024
• Be a citizen of the United States
• Be a registered voter with the Suffolk County Board of Elections

Qualified voters may register any school day at the District Administrative Office, 149 Dayton Avenue, Manorville, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.  The deadline to register with the School District is May 14, 2026.  This registration will only allow registrants to vote in the School District Election.

Qualified voters may also register with the Suffolk County Board of Elections to vote in all municipal elections relating to their address.  These registration forms are available from the Office of the District Clerk and from the Suffolk County Board of Elections.  Those who register up until the day before the vote (May 18) will be permitted to vote on May 19th, subject to verification by the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

Absentee Ballot Applications may be obtained from the District Administrative Office, 149 Dayton Avenue, Manorville, or via the district website,ESM homepage, or by clicking below.  Ballots will be issued upon the satisfactory completion and submission of the application form.  The deadline for filing an Absentee Ballot Application, if the ballot is to be mailed to the resident, is Tuesday, May 12, 2026 at 4:00 p.m.  The deadline for filing an Absentee Ballot Application, if the ballot is to be personally delivered to the resident, is Monday, May 18, 2026 at 4:00 p.m.  Absentee Ballots may be issued to third parties representing the voter, provided the third party is identified on the Absentee Ballot Application and is able to provide proper identification when picking up the ballot from the Office of the District Clerk.  Absentee Ballot Applications will not be received prior to April 20, 2026.  All Absentee Ballots must be filed with the District Clerk by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. Applications are accepted BY APPOINTMENT ONLY due to the District’s visitor policy.  Call 631-801-3001 or email reyesm@esmonline.org to make an appointment.

Absentee ballot applications can also be downloaded below:

• Absentee Ballot Application in English
• Absentee Ballot Application in Spanish

Early Mail Voting Applications may be obtained from the District Administrative Office, 149 Dayton Avenue, Manorville, or via the district website, ESM Homepage, or by clicking below.  Ballots will be issued upon the satisfactory completion and submission of the application form.  The deadline for filing an Early Mail Voting Application, if the ballot is to be mailed to the resident, is Tuesday, May 12, 2026 at 4:00 p.m.  The deadline for filing an Early Mail Voting Application, if the ballot is to be personally delivered to the resident, is Monday, May 18, 2025, at 4:00 p.m.  Early Mail Voting Ballots may be issued to third parties representing the voter, provided the third party is identified on the Early Mail Voting Ballot Application and is able to provide proper identification when picking up the ballot from the Office of the District Clerk.  Early Mail Voting Applications will not be received prior to April 20, 2026.  All Early Mail Voting Ballots must be filed with the District Clerk by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. Applications are accepted BY APPOINTMENT ONLY due to the District’s visitor policy.  Call 631-801-3001 or email reyesm@esmonline.org to make an appointment.

Early Mail applications can also be downloaded below:

• Early Mail Ballot Application in English
• Early Mail Ballot Application in Spanish

When the voters of a school district fail to approve a school budget, the district is required by law to operate under what is called a contingent or contingency budget. In such circumstances, the school district is restricted to what are defined as "ordinary contingent expenses" — in other words, expenditures that are necessary to operate the regular instructional program, preserve the health and safety of students and staff, and protect the district's property.

When voters reject a school budget, the Board of Education has three options under the law:

(1) submit the same budget for a second vote;

(2) submit a revised budget for a second vote; or

(3) adopt a contingency budget.

If the budget is rejected a second time, the board must adopt a contingent budget. The tax levy under a contingent budget can be no greater than the tax levy of the prior year (that is, no tax levy increase).

While a school board has some latitude in determining what constitutes ordinary contingent expenses, some expenditures are expressly prohibited. For example, equipment purchases that are not related to health and safety, and new capital projects – even if these expenditures did not increase the tax levy beyond the prescribed level. Also, any staff member working with a one-year contract cannot get a raise in the next year’s salary.

It is commonly believed that extracurricular activities, including interscholastic athletics, may not be included in a contingent budget, but this is not the case. However, because activities like after-school clubs and sports are not mandated under the law and fall outside of the regular instructional program, school districts often find it necessary to reduce or eliminate such programs in order to meet the requirements of a contingent budget. This is why parents sometimes raise private funds for sports or other activities in districts operating under contingency.

It is not necessarily the case that a property owner's taxes will remain exactly the same if the district operates under a contingent budget. Though the overall tax levy would be unchanged, individual tax bills may rise or fall because of changes in assessed valuation or in the distribution of real property taxes among the four classes of property, as well as other factors which are outside the control of the school district.

A contingent budget is also sometimes called an "austerity" budget, which is a more descriptive term but is not technically correct.

WHAT ARE A SCHOOL DISTRICT'S BUDGET CODES?

A school district's budget is broken down into hundreds of lines that identify expenditures according to what they are meant to address. Below is an explanation of those codes.

Function Codes

The first level of organization is identified by function codes. These broadly identify each area of expenditure. They are summarized here:

Code 1000- General Support

This code area includes budget lines for the Board of Education, District Clerk, the annual budget vote and election, as well as Central Administration (including the Superintendent's office, business operations and human resources), operations and maintenance, utilities, and insurance.

Code 2000- Instruction

By far the largest category of expenditures, all regular elementary and secondary classrooms and other instruction are included here as well as expenditures for special education programs, as required by law, and budgets for extracurricular activities (clubs, intramurals, etc.) and interscholastic athletics.

Code 5000 - Transportation

All student transportation, whether by our a school's own buses or by contract with private companies, are coded here.

Code 9000 - Undistributed

This code refers to budgeted items paid to agencies rather than vendors or individuals. Included here are all employee benefits, such as health, dental, and life insurance as provided for by contract with employee groups, as well as payments to the Social Security and retirement systems. Also included here are payments for interest and principal payments for borrowing, whether for short term purposes or for long term debt for capital projects. The term "undistributed" means that the item is not assigned to the function for which is it expended; for example, the district makes one large payment to the Teachers Retirement System for all employees covered by that system, instead of distributing the payment among numerous payroll codes.

(Note: There are other function codes 3000, 4000, 7000, etc. which are not used by school districts and are not defined here.)

Additional Codes

Each of the above function codes is then subdivided into standard object codes defined by the Uniform System of Accounts. In Eastport-South Manor, we provide three additional codes that provide even greater levels of budget detail than required by the state: location, program and administrator. A simple way to understand the five codes is to think of them as answering these basic questions about the budget:

• WHY? The function code indicates why something is allocated in the budget.

• WHAT? The object code describes the specific item or service.

• WHERE? The location code tells us where the item or service is being provided.

• WHICH? The program code specifies which part of the program the item or service is allocated for.

Let's look at an example of an actual budget code:

2110.450.HS.OPED

• The function code, 2110, indicates that the budget item is for regular instruction.

• The object code, 450, describes the needed item(s) as supplies.

• The location code, HS, tells us that the supplies are for the High School.

• The program code, OPED, specifies that these supplies are for physical education department.

A rule of thumb is that any object code (the second set of numbers which can only be three digits) is that any number less than 200 is a salary code. Here is another example:

2110.120.DA.LEAD

• The function code, 2110, indicates that the budget item is for regular instruction.

• The object code, 120, describes in this case that the funds are to pay a salary or salaries.

• The location code, DA, tells us that the salary is for someone at Dayton Avenue School.

• The program code, LEAD, specifies that this salary is to pay a contractual obligation for a teacher/s for additional work they perform. In this case, acting as a lead teacher for a group to help facilitate instruction.

Advantages of the Coding System

The coding system has the distinct advantage of allowing the budget to be reviewed in multiple ways. For example, if we wanted to know how much the district spends on supplies, we can search through all of the 450 object codes. Or, if we wanted to know how much the art program costs district-wide, we can zero in on the program codes. There are literally thousands of combinations of codes the school district can use to monitor expenditures.

What is a FOIL?

The Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), Article 6 (Sections 84-90) of the New York State Public Officers Law, provides the public right to access records maintained by government agencies with certain exceptions.

Record means any information kept, held, filed, produced or reproduced by, with, or for this agency, in any physical form whatsoever including, but not limited to, reports, statements, examinations, memoranda, opinions, folders, files, books, manuals, pamphlets, forms, papers, designs, drawings, maps, photos, letters, microfilms, computer tapes or disks, rules, regulations or codes.

The Eastport-South Manor School District shall accept written or electronic requests for the inspection and copying of records during regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., excluding holidays). Records shall be made available for public inspection and copying at the District Office at the following address:

Eastport-South Manor School District
Administrative Office
149 Dayton Avenue
Manorville, NY 11949

Records can also be requested electronically by submitting the request online (click link) or by email at FOIL@esmonline.org.

Please be advised that records require review prior to disclosure. As a result, documents and records will not be immediately available.

FOIL Process
Within five (5) business days of the receipt of a written or electronic request for a record reasonably described, the District will send you a message either: making such record available; denying such request in writing; or furnishing an acknowledgment of the receipt of such request.

An acknowledgment message will provide you with an estimate of when the records you request will be available, which shall be reasonable under the circumstances of the request. This date is determined by the number of documents you request, their format, their availability, the time it takes to redact any information that cannot be disclosed pursuant to FOIL, the time it takes to assemble the documents, and other factors.

If the records you request require a fee to be paid, you will be notified prior to the records being released to you. Unless a different fee is otherwise prescribed by statute, Public Officers Law §87(1) authorizes an agency to charge a fee of 25¢ per copy for copies of records up 9”x 14”, or the actual cost of reproducing a record. In determining the actual cost of producing a record, an agency may include only:

• an amount equal to the hourly salary attributed to the lowest paid employee who has the necessary skill required to prepare the requested record(s), if at least two hours of agency employee time is needed to prepare a copy of the record request
• the actual cost of the storage devices or media provided to the person making the request in complying with such request; and
• the actual cost to the agency of engaging an outside professional service to prepare a copy of a record, but only when an agency's information technology equipment is inadequate to prepare a copy, if such service is used to prepare the copy

Once the requested records are prepared, you may receive the records via email, fax, paper, or USB.  Records are available for inspection, by appointment, on business days between 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (excluding holidays) at the District Office at 149 Dayton Avenue, Manorville, NY 11949.  You may schedule an appointment for in-person inspection of records by calling 631-801-3001.

Right to Appeal

Under provisions of the Public Officers Law you may appeal a FOIL determination.  If you desire to submit such an appeal, you must do so within 30 days of the response to your FOIL request. Please include a copy of the original request for records and a copy of the FOIL response message you received along with your appeal message to:

Superintendent Joseph Steimel
Eastport-South Manor School District
149 Dayton Avenue
Manorville, NY 11949

Or via email to: FOIL@esmonline.org


Helpful Tips

For more information about FOIL, please visit the New York State Committee on Open Government’s website.

When submitting a FOIL request:

• Be as specific as possible in describing the requested records. Include relevant dates, names, descriptions, etc. See suggested language for a FOIL request from the Committee on Open Government
• Specify whether you would like to inspect the records or have copies of the records sent to you
• If records are available, specify how you want them sent, i.e., via US mail, delivered electronically or fax. We may choose to send the records by U.S. mail, if you have requested a large volume of records, for security or other important reasons. We will notify you of any charge for reproducing such records before they are sent to you
• Include your e-mail, mailing address and fax number, as well as a telephone number where you can be reached during business hours, if it is necessary to clarify your request
• Please note that the agency is not required to create a new record in response to FOIL requests