West Hempstead voters give school budget failing grade

Voters turned down the proposed West Hempstead Union Free School District budget with a vote of 1,738-1,080. They also voted down the Resident Initiated Referendum to extend transportation throughout the district with a vote of 2,180-601.

Cynthia Di Miceli and Rudolph Schindler were voted in as the new school board trustees. Di Miceli, who challenged incumbent Martin Kaye, won with 1,240 votes over Kaye's 944. Schindler had 818 votes, beating incumbent Davis Whelpley, who had 802 votes, and challenger Nathalie Crosland, who had 543 votes. Board member Anthony Brita, who ran unopposed, was re-elected with 1,566 votes.

The new board members begin their terms on July 1.

"First of all, we thank all the voters who came out yesterday. We had double the amount of voters in this year's election than we did last year and we're appreciative that they came out to vote," said Superintendent John Hogan. "We knew that when we put the 9.4 [tax levy increase] number out there, this would be a difficult budget year."

He continued, "We did our best to get a significant amount of information out there so the voters could take a look at that and they did. And yesterday they gave us their decision, which is exactly what the board was looking for in terms of direction from the residents. And now the administration and the board will get together and we'll move forward from there."

Over the next month, the board will have to decide whether to propose a new budget or put the same budget before the voters. If the budget fails a second time, the district will have to adopt a contingency budget, which, this year, allows no increase over the 2009-2010 budget.

"A 700-point difference between no votes and yes votes is a significant difference and one that the school district is not going to ignore," Hogan said. "The residents clearly made their sentiments known yesterday and we take the voice of the people very seriously."

Board President Pam Lotito said, "The budget that was presented to the community kept the integrity of our educational programs intact. We had a record turn out of voters yesterday who chose to reject the proposed school budget. The Board of Education and administration will now go back to the drawing board and work on a new budget which will significantly cut costs. We are committed to ensuring the educational success of all our students especially during these difficult economic times."