Second Draft of School Budget Met With Criticism

The Port Washington Board of Education presented its second draft of the school district's proposed 2010-11 budget to the public at Tuesday night's school board meeting — with mixed reviews from those in attendance at Schreiber High School. While the new proposal shows a slight decrease — to 2.52 percent — from the initial 2.92 percent increase from last year's budget, residents are still unhappy with many of the cuts.

"We're trying to balance a bad situation," Superintendent for Business Mary Callahan said. "No one wants to see any cuts in teams or in clubs or the pre-k program, however, as Dr. Gordon indicated, as costs skyrocket for the district, we try to balance educational need against the balance of the pressure on the taxpayer. All of these items need to be considered." Callahan added that the board was advised by Governor David Patterson that there will be in-state aid cuts in the range of $750,000.

The previous proposed budget of $128,284,306 has dropped $504,583 to $127,779,723. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Geoffrey N. Gordon reiterated what he said at the last budget session to help combat the sea of criticism that each draft has received from concerned Port Washington residents thus far. "It was a work in progress," Gordon said. "There was still much work to be done despite the board getting the increase down."

Frank Russo, who has been a staple at the district's budget meetings and is a member of the Port Washington Educational Assembly (PWEA), feels the board has done next to nothing since the last draft was put forth last month.

"I'm very disappointed," Russo said during the public comment portion of the meeting. "My PWEA members have been telling me that I've been very naïve in being more optimistic, but I guess they were right. You cut nothing. But you cut half-a-million dollars in the AT LAST program which I don't even agree with. It brings in half-a-million dollars in revenue so you're not affecting the taxes at all."

Established in 1989, the AT LAST program is a summer recreational program offered to children from nursery school to second grade. It provides fun activities such as arts and crafts, cooking, reading, outdoor play, math and science.

Other topics brought up by residents during the public comment portion of the meeting focused on the pre-kindergarten program, school clubs, sports and driver's education, which faces a reduction of $35,000. Driver's Ed is currently free for students, but members of the board said that would most likely change and a student fee would be incurred.

"It's not right," said Neil Miller. who has taught at Schreiber High School since 1991 and is a current driving instructor. "Last summer, the program had almost 90 students. A portion of last year's students were subsidized by other neighboring districts. Students have been asking about what to do if it's cut and obviously I don't have an answer."

Unlike past budget sessions, Schreiber High School students even showed up to express their concerns with the current budget.

"When I look back at my years at Schreiber, those are things I will remember," said junior Rebecca Greenblatt about extracurricular activities that are on the chopping block. "Extracurricular activities are such an important part of the college process and it would be unfair for future students to be denied a chance to do something fun or charitable."

Members of the board stressed that neither them nor the administration, "recommend the cutting of clubs" and that the issue is the cutting of units. The number of units pertains to the amount (whether it is money or other resources) that is allotted to each club. Dr. Gordon said that the cost per unit in terms of school clubs has gone up exponentially since he was named superintendent in 2002.

"Please be aware that the teachers want to add clubs, the board wants to add clubs," Gordon said. "The realities are, and I'm going to be as blunt as I can be, the cost of units has gone up approximately $600 ... for every single unit. ... For anybody who thinks that the teachers in this district, the administration or the board wants to take away clubs for students, that is just not accurate."

While residents may have been hoping to voice their opinion about the district's proposed budget at this month's scheduled HSA budget forums, they will not have that opportunity. Previously scheduled by the South Salem Elementary School and Weber Middle School HSAs for March 11 and March 24, both forums have been canceled.
 

The district's Web site said, "Out of respect for everyone's busy schedules, the HSAs thought it better to not bring people out on two different evenings in the same week."

Residents' next opportunity to give their input pertaining to the 2010-11 budget will be at the final budget work session at the March 23 school board meeting taking place at 8 p.m. at Schreiber High School.