Schools
The Blizzard of '10 Was Nothing Compared to This Gathering Storm
School Board meeting is brief but once again delivers message of impending doom, with restrictions from Albany to blame.
With Port Washington School Board President Karen Sloan absent due to family reasons, Vice President William Hohauser took the reigns for Tuesday's board meeting at , where members continued to hammer the point home that the next year or even longer will be difficult, financially.
"I want to talk about what was in today's Newsday and Times about the possibility of a 2 percent cap increase on property taxes," Hohauser said. "This cap will greatly affect communities like ours because we'll have even less room to operate than we do now."
The meeting's conversations did not get any rosier as Hank Ratner pondered aloud during community comments.
Find out what's happening in Port Washingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"In the Port News, Mr. Ryan, you were quoted as saying the board only controls 30 million of a $100 million budget," Ratner said, addressing board member Robert Ryan.
Looking to clarify, Superintendent Dr. Geoffrey Gordon said that in New York state, school districts were bound by restrictions through the Taylor Law and the Triborough Amendments, making old contracts enforceable and preventing meaningful discussions from taking place. "As long as these laws are in place, there won't be any significant changes to school budgets," he said.
Find out what's happening in Port Washingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Gordon continued: "The School Board is in a difficult place to try and balance all of this, but I am wholly confident that we can do it but for the next year or so it's going to be tough."
Next, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Nicholas Stirling and Gordon explained ESL mandates.
"Over the last few years, the board has been very supportive of the ESL program and have done so by hiring a director for the program for example, but unfortunately we have been understaffed these past few years," Stirling said.
"Again, this is another place where our funding from Albany has been cut – we've lost funding for immigrant students, but more and more children are being born in this country and don't know how to speak English," Dr. Gordon said. "Of course, we're going to continue working with our leadership and the community to look at ways to expand these programs without putting the burden wholly on the taxpayers."
The School Board also voted and passed the appointment of Daniel Interdonati as a full-time educational assistant. The next school board meeting will take place Jan. 18 at Schreiber at 8 p.m.
