Community Update

Tuesday’s School Budget votes signaled a good year for nearly
all of Long Island.  After a couple of
years of transitioning to budgeting within the Tax Levy Cap, nearly every
district found a way to create a budget that balanced the preservation of
services with fiscally responsible planning. 
Three districts did not find that balance.  Of the three districts that chose to present
a budget which pierced the state mandated cap, only one passed.  The other two failed miserably.  Of note was Sayville district, which not only
failed to receive the necessary 60% majority required to approve a budget that
is over the state cap, but didn’t even come close to a simple majority.  The message to the Board (and the Administration)
is clear: Don’t bother putting up another budget that pierces the cap unless
you want to end up with the austerity budget (mandated when the Board’s budget
fails twice) because residents will vote
it down.

How did Sayville find itself in this position? That’s simple:
 financial planning that failed to take into
account the current economic realities; a BOE and Teacher’s Union which are FAR
too cozy and an assumption that the complacency that the residents have shown
over the years would continue forever.  First,
the BOE entered into a contract which gives teachers an average of 4.25%
increase for 2014-2015 when after combining step increases and across-the-board.
This was done knowing full well that the district could not count on state aid,
interest income or property values increasing to levels sufficient to fund such
an increase.  The ONLY choice would be to
pierce the cap and ask Sayville taxpayers to carry this burden alone.

In the past,
when districts over Long Island were putting up budgets that had significant increases
and all of the Boards of Education would cite the same reasons, voters felt like
they had little choice.  It seemed that
there were nebulous reasons for the increases “unfunded mandates”, “stagnant
state aid”, “if we don’t increase our teacher salaries, the best ones will go
elsewhere” and most recently “Gap Elimination Adjustment” concerns.  Well, guess what?  120 districts managed to stay within their
cap even if the face of every one of those same issues.  So, when Sayville tried to use those excuses
this year, the obvious response is “If everyone else found a way, why couldn’t you?”
And that is when the truth of the poor management, resulting in an overly
generous compensation package, becomes obvious. 
(The only increase in any program, service or supply for students proposed
was new social studies textbooks in elementary school.)

Those who wish to boil this down to an argument that
teachers don’t deserve raises are petty and disingenuous.  When the economy is working well, and the taxpayers
funding those raises are themselves seeing their wages and property values
increase, there is an intrinsic aspect of the social contract that calls for supporting the public sector with increased
compensation.  But, the social contract
also calls for public sector employees to live within the realities of their chosen
profession.  With the budget voted down,
the unpleasant choice before us now is: what services and programs which
benefit the children will be reduced or eliminated?  Before and after the vote, teachers and administrators
unfairly portrayed the reduction of services as being entirely the result of
residents who don’t care about the children.  One of the cuts being thrown around as likely
is a move to the dreaded “Princeton Plan” which would be a totally devastating change
to the town, where neighborhood schools are integral to the fostering of a
sense of community.  Moving to the
Princeton Plan to address the funding problem caused by the two years left in
the teacher contract is like bringing a machine gun to a fist fight.  There is no reason to go down that road.

If the teachers and the administrators care so much about
the welfare of the children, let’s see them reopen the contract and forego some
of the increases for the next two years. 
Why not accept EITHER the step increases or the across-the-board for two
years, thus eliminating the need for drastic cuts?    

If the teacher’s union were to step forward and show a
collective sense of sacrifice, the response from the community would be quick
and emphatic, in full support of a reasonable and realistic approach to the
school budget.  An approach that considers
the needs of the children, the teachers and the taxpayers – a novel idea for
Sayville. 

Laura Valente, EdD.

Sayville