VIDEO: State of 2010-2011 School Budget

The Patchogue-Medford School District's state aid will drop this year, but recently-hired Assistant Superintendent of Business Donna Jones said the district had budgeted accordingly.

At a recent Board of Education meeting, Jones said now that the state budget has finally passed, the local school system has a concrete picture of the money it can expect from the state government.

State aid will drop $5.4 million from last year, but will still ring in at around $59 million for the 2010-2011 school year.

Jones added the state budget that passed was close to what the governor had proposed and the local school district had based its budget on that proposal.

"We are off to a good start in terms of revenues that we budgeted for," Jones said. "They're down, but we are in balance for the school year as we start."

Also at the meeting, Jones said she's working to make the school budgeting process more transparent, as well as checking the district's internal controls to make sure there are no risks to financials.

"The primary goal was to have a plan of action as to how to attack the budget so there would be full transparency and everybody will understand the entire budgetary process," Jones said.

Watch the video for Donna Jones's full report.