The Westbury Board of Education has proposed a $172.6 million school bond because of the need for expanded facilities due to excessive student enrollment and projected future enrollment.
The district has this problem primarily because of illegal housing being particularly acute in New Cassel where 85 percent of the students reside. Also, a large percentage of students reside in homes that house two or three families that may have six or more children in the district but are defined as one family by New York State law. Moreover many students do not live in the district. Probably 50 to 70 percent or more of the students are in these categories.
It is unfair to add this expense on top of the very high school taxes that are paid by the already overburdened taxpayers, especially in the village and Old Westbury because their taxes are higher than New Cassel homeowners. This proposal also does not consider yearly school tax increases.
Moreover, the district is always the worst performer in the Town of North Hempstead and second worst in Nassau County, with Hempstead being the worse. Therefore, one-third of the eligible students in the Westbury School District attend private schools. Probably 99 percent of these students reside in the village and Old Westbury. This means that their parents will have paid between $104,000—$390,000/$208,000—$780,000 of after-tax dollars to educate one child/two children from kindergarten to 12th grade.
The district also receives the greatest windfall of any Nassau County district because it gets tax dollars from the private school parents without having to educate their children. These taxpayers also have more salt added to their wounds because their home values continue to decrease due to the district’s abysmal performance.
Another tragedy is that the legitimate taxpayers’ children in the district are being dramatically shortchanged because of the resources that are being taken away from their children and given to children that are illegally in the system.
The reason for the illegal housing is the failure of the Town of North Hempstead to enforce the housing codes. The town and New Cassel also wasted over $25 million on the bling bling “Yes We Can” Community Center and millions more on abandoned projects on Prospect Avenue even though they knew about the overcrowding and academic problems of the district.
Moreover if this bond is approved and these buildings are built, more students would enter the district illegally because their parents would know that the voters don’t care. Additionally, as shown in the Roosevelt School District, new buildings don’t increase academic performance.
The solution to this problem is strict code enforcement. There should also be a major increase in fines on landlords that violate the housing code. If the fines were raised to $7,500 for a first violation and $15,000 for a second violation, there would be a great reduction in illegal housing and therefore a substantial decrease in district enrollment.
The federal government should also provide financial assistance since they dumped 179 refugee children in the district.
I hope that the school board will have the good sense to withdraw this ill-advised proposal. If they refuse to do so, I trust that the voters will have the good sense to soundly reject it.
—Gregory P. Lewis
