By Andrew Coen
The third straight defeat of the Lawrence Public Schools budget has angered many Atlantic Beach residents, including Mayor Stephen Mahler, since the village overwhelmingly supported the spending proposal, only to see voters across the bridge shoot it down in large numbers.
Atlantic Beach Village Hall polling place tallied 539 yes votes to 186 no votes on the proposed $87.3 million Lawrence school budget, but the proposition still failed by 994 votes, 3,921 to 2,927, because several other polling places in District 15 collected many more votes against it, including the Number One School in Lawrence and Lawrence Middle School.
Mayor Mahler said that if budgets continue to be voted down, he could see Atlantic Beach residents either breaking away from District 15 and joining the neighboring Long Beach school system, or perhaps proposing the establishment of an Atlantic Beach School District, encompassing the village, Atlantic Beach Estates and East Atlantic Beach. People in Atlantic Beach should not sit by and see their children receive a less-than-adequate education, said Mahler.
He emphasized that as mayor he would not advocate having village residents change school systems, but that he would not be surprised if residents took it upon themselves to make such a change. However, the mayor did say he was serious about creating an Atlantic Beach school system if conditions in Lawrence do not improve.
We would probably have to condemn some buildings, but I could see it happening if we combined Atlantic Beach with Atlantic Beach Estates and East Atlantic Beach, said Mahler. We have a lot of young families here, and it is important for them to have a great school system to go to, and perhaps we should consider having one right here.
East Atlantic Beach residents currently attend Long Beach schools, while children who live in the Village of Atlantic Beach and Atlantic Beach Estates attend Lawrence schools.
According to Mahler, the village government has no jurisdiction over the school district, but he said he would listen intently to residents- concerns. I would use my office to allow the residents to voice their complaints, he said.
Even though Mahler explained that he would not take the initiative to move from Lawrence to the Long Beach School system, he indicated that such a change could happen and would likely be embraced by the neighboring city. I think [Long Beach] would welcome us, he said.
School board member Anthony Licatesi, who lives in Atlantic Beach Estates and has children in the Lawrence schools, said he hopes people in the district will start to support the budget so that a move to Long Beach or the establishment of an Atlantic Beach school system does not become necessary. As a parent, the Long Beach school system sounds more appealing than the Lawrence school system at the present time, but I hope things can turn around, Licatesi said. But in order to do that, we all need to be on the same page and support the budget. These failed budgets will hurt both public- and private-school children.
I understand the concern, but before we could comment, a number of legal hurdles would have to be overcome, said Long Beach Superintendent Dr. Ron Friedman. It is my understanding that there are no legal loopholes in place to allow a portion of one school district to secede and join another district.
Since Friedman became Long Beach superintendent in 1999, all proposed budgets have been passed.
According to the New York State Department of Education, in order for a dramatic reorganization of a school system to occur, certain steps must be taken: an adequate study must be completed to determine whether the proposal is desirable; residents of the district must be informed of the potential reorganization; and the majority of the voters in the district affected must support the proposal.
The Department of Education-s Guide To the Reorganization of School Districts in New York State states that in order for part of a school system to be annexed by another district, a proposition must be approved by the voters of the district after having been approved and recommended by the Board of Education and superintendent. Between 1983 and 1998, 56 school districts in the state opted to reorganize, according to the guide.
Besides failing on May 18, the proposed budget in Lawrence was defeated last June 3 and again during a June 30 re-vote. This year-s revote is scheduled for June 22, as the school board has decided to put before the voters the same $87.3 million budget, with its 4.7 percent increase.
