By JAIME STUDD

For the Express

BROADALBIN — Broadalbin-Perth Superin-tendent Stephen Tomlinson is thinking that the district’s efforts to reduce costs in recent years will soon pay off.

At Monday night’s Board of Education meeting, Tomlinson announced that work had been completed on the district’s application for a $525,000 competitive grant and the document had been delivered to the New York State Education Department.

The 2012-2015 School District Management Efficiency Competitive Grant Program is being offered by the state as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $50 million competitive grant program.

The funding, Tomlinson said, is to be distributed over the course of three years and can be applied at the district’s discretion.

“This could be a huge, huge win for Broadalbin-Perth,” said Tomlinson.

Tomlinson said the application, which was prepared with the help of the grant writing service contracted through the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery Board of Cooperative Educational Services, was an extremely in-depth and exhaustive process.

It began with the district choosing a specific fiscal year to build the application around, in which a significant amount of cost savings could be proven, and required extensive research and detailed figures.

Tomlinson credited Broadalbin-Perth Business Administrator Marco Zumbolo with having contributed immensely to the application by dedicating a significant amount of time and energy toward calculating the necessary figures.

Broadalbin-Perth’s application focused on the 2009-2010 school year, in which nearly $600,000 was saved by changing the health plans of the teachers and administrators, by centralizing bus services and by achieving general energy savings

“There was a lot of work done by Mr. Zumbolo in showing that we saved all that,” Tomlinson said.

If awarded the grant, Tomlinson said he wants to ensure that the funds are directed toward one-time budgetary items, rather than towards things like staffing where the money will just have to be made up again the following year.

Specifically, Tomlinson said the grant money would likely go toward the installation of wireless Internet access in all of the school buildings and, eventually, allow for the purchase of technological equipment like Smartboards for the classrooms and hand-held devices for students.

“We’re pretty optimistic,” Tomlinson said.

In addition, the district is also in the process of applying for the state’s Strengthening Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Grant, which is also part of the governor’s competitive grant program.

That grant relates to the district’s implementation of the newly required Annual Professional Performance Review for teachers.

Tomlinson said his district is dedicated to creating “a system that will reward better teachers,” and he’s hopeful that the dedication will result in the district being awarded the grant, which is worth up to $223,000.

The final copy of that application is due to be submitted to the state by July 2.

Tomlinson said he expects to hear word from the state on whether Broadalbin-Perth was selected to receive any grant money by the fall.