The New York State budget that was passed on Wednesday, April 1 will have a significant impact on the Port Washington School District. The budget restores roughly $750,000 in state aid for the district. This is welcome news, as the state has cut $6 million in aid to the district during the last five years. The aid will enable the Board of Education (BOE) to balance the 2015-16 budget.
The cash squeeze was on everyone’s mind at the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, March 31, which took place hours before the state passed its budget. A cadre of eloquent Schreiber High School students came out to advocate on behalf of students, particularly those at Schreiber, where class size has increased and rumors of proposed program cuts are rampant.
Senior Josh Curtiss protested the elimination of the Mandarin language course, cutbacks in funding for extra curricular clubs and a proposal to increase class size for the research program.
BOE members did their best to separate fact from fiction. Yes, the Mandarin language course was eliminated. It had failed to attract a significant number of students. No, class size in the research program was not scheduled to be increased.
However, the Board acknowledged that it is facing significant financial challenges in fulfilling its mission to provide high quality education, given the financial realities of a 1.5 percent tax cap for next year, along with the erosion in state aid during the past few years.
Mary Callahan, the District’s Assistant Superintendent for Business, made an in-depth presentation of the budget draft and the entire budgeting process. “We started with a $2 million gap and over several months we have asked each school and department to look at efficiencies,” said Callahan. “Our mission is educating children and trying to do the right thing.” Callahan stressed that the budget is not yet finalized and items, such as the number of teachers returning from maternity leave, can have a significant impact on the bottom line.
BOE President Karen Sloan
said,” We are not looking to just cut programs. We are looking at long-range planning.”
The Board has taken money from reserves in the past to balance the budget. Today reserves are low and the consensus on the board is to use some of the aid provided by the state to replenish reserves.
The Port Washington News asked about the use of scarce funds, specifically $50,000 used to pay the public relations firm Syntax. Sloan responded that this budget item is partially funded by reimbursement from BOCES and that staff time is too valuable to be spent speaking with the press.
The timing of the school bond vote was also called into question. Port residents who spend part of the year in a warmer climate were not aware of the vote and others have told Port Washington News that obtaining an absentee ballot was difficult. Sloan responded that the timing of the vote was determined by the objective of beginning construction of capital projects in the summer of 2016. The board believed that scheduling the vote in May, when the budget vote will take place, would have negatively impacted the summer 2016 start date for the projects funded by the bond. Although notice of the bond vote was published in Newsday, Sloan said it was not published in the Port Washington News.
Opponents of the bond have filed a lawsuit to nullify the results of the March 10 vote, which passed the bond by less than 250 votes.
Community members expressed concern at the BOE meeting that
tax dollars would now have to be spent by the BOE to defend the bond vote, taking scarce resources from actual education.
In other business, the Board authorized a letter to Governor Cuomo to “de-couple” educational policy from politics. The letter questions the validity and use of test scores in evaluating teacher performance and student progress.
There will be a public hearing on the proposed budget on May 5, at 7:30 p.m. at Schreiber High School. The budget vote will take place on May 19.
