Long Beach school budget passes; Lester re-elected

By a count of 1,432 votes to 610, residents approved the Long Beach School District’s $123.8 million 2013-14 budget on Tuesday. In addition, school board incumbent Roy Lester was re-elected to the seat he has held for nine years, beating out newcomers Matthew Adler, Elizabeth Treston and Jes Bellsey.

The district’s spending plan is $1.6 million, or 1.32 percent, larger than the current budget. The tax levy — the total amount the district needs to raise through property taxes — was raised 1 percent, to $93.2 million.

“I’m very happy,” Superintendent David Weiss said. “A lot of work went into it, and I think it’s a very fair budget given the circumstances.”

Lester, the board’s president, garnered 1,087 votes. Adler, who ran on a platform that stressed improving teacher training, was the runner-up, collecting 543 votes.

“This was a learning experience,” said Adler, adding that he would continue to be active in the school district. “If you want a change, you have to be involved.”

Treston and Bellsey, who both sought better communication and outreach between the board and residents, earned 423 and 361 votes, respectively.

Lester thanked his opponents for a respectful race, and said he looked forward to continuing to work with his fellow board members. “I want to thank the people I ran against,” he said. “This was a very clean, well-run, civil campaign. There wasn’t a single incident of anybody stepping out of line, and that says a lot in this town. It was good to have good opponents.”

This budget season saw no shortage of contention, with the district forced to make more staffing cuts than in recent years. The elementary teachers-in-charge, first grade aides, a high school dean and the pre-K bus matrons were all on the chopping block. But after a public outcry, school officials restored some of the proposed cuts when they presented the final budget.

“The biggest factor was we wanted to keep our teacher-in-charge,” said a woman named Bonnie who has three children in district schools. “If you have kids in the district, how could you not pass your school budget?”

“It’s important to pass it for the kids,” said another voter. “There was a lot of concern with the tax hike, but the number one focus should always be on the kids. And the tax levy is due to the bond that we voted for, so you can’t really say no.”

Many voters agreed that it is important to support the schools, and that voting against the budget isn’t a viable option because it only hurts students. But others said they voted against the spending plan because community members don’t deserve to have their taxes raised after Hurricane Sandy.

“I never support the budget,” said James Yeomans, who has two children in the district. “Since I’ve been here, 13 years, it’s gone from $77 million to $123 million with no appreciable difference other than a $100 million bond that they floated. Twenty-seven thousand dollars per pupil is an outrageous amount of money. I think that, after everything that this community has gone through in the last year, to just rubber-stamp another budget is the height of irresponsibility.”

Residents also approved the Long Beach Public Library’s $3.4 million 2013-14 budget, 1,478 votes to 501. At its March meeting, the library’s Board of Trustees narrowly adopted the budget, 3-2, in a vote that hinged on whether the West End branch, at 810 W. Beech St., would be restored. All of the branch’s contents were destroyed during Sandy.

The budget provides for the continued payment of rent on the West End branch for the remainder of its lease, but does not fund its restocking with books, DVDs or computers. The board is currently evaluating how best to use the space to benefit the West End community.

In the race for library trustee, Alan Greenberg, who was appointed to the board only three months ago, after President Paula Freund stepped down, pulled off a very close victory over Diane Parr, 1,156 votes to 994. Greenberg will serve a five-year term.