By:Jonann Brady
If approved, the district would see a 10.3 percent bump in the overall tax levy, but since the County Assessor-s Office has yet to release tax rate numbers, individual homeowners cannot calculate how much they will actually pay based on the assessed value of their properties.
At the meeting, attended by about 50 residents and district personnel, Superintendent Carol Eisenberg asked the community to stand behind the solid instructional budget for parents and for and about students.
The 2004-05 budget includes funding for a special education teacher at the secondary level, additional special education aides and a special education administrative assistant. The budget also funds programs such as Academic Intervention Services, Regents prep courses, a new elementary math program and full-day kindergarten, all of which help the district achieve federally mandated No Child Left Behind standards, said Eisenberg.
One item of debate for the board and some parents in the audience was whether or not to fund a BOCES Cultural Arts program, which gives students the opportunity to study drama, music, theater and other artistic ventures in an intensive, half-day program at BOCES. Students must audition and be accepted into the program, which costs the district about $11,000.
In the 2003-04 budget, the program was funded at $18,900, but for the 2004-05 budget, the district eliminated funding. One parent whose daughter planned on applying for the program to study music, and noting the high rate of turnover in the West Hempstead music department, asked, What makes a pursuit in the arts less important? Where is this district-s commitment to the arts?
Board member Davis Whelpley called funding for the Cultural Arts Program just a drop in the ocean of the entire budget, especially considering the amount spent on special needs.
Other board members agreed, but said that the school needs to do a better job of publicizing the program to ensure all students have an opportunity to apply, and that the board needs to establish a policy on how the program would be funded in the future.
We need more information on the program, said board member Pamela Lotito, who said she wanted to see the program continue for another year, funding one student. The board has to establish a policy on Cultural ArtsÉThe board should not decide on who goes but should put a cap on the number we can afford.
After much discussion board members, they agreed to fund the program next year for two students, at a cost of about $22,000 and instructed the superintendent to find that finding from other budget lines or from discretionary funding, so the bottom line of the budget remains the same.
The budget line for school security guards jumps $12,000 for next year, from $190,000 to $202,000. While the district is not planning on hiring more than the six guards it already has, Eisenberg said that the guards would be redeployed and would be working additional hours.
Christine Grucci, assistant superintendent for business and operations, said, We-re trying to break up the clustering of guards.
Board member Vincent Trocchia also asked about the investigator who looks into questions about residency requirements in the district. We should plant someone at the bus stops on Hempstead Turnpike, he said.
Phillip Edwards, assistant superintendent, noted that the district now conducts re-registration in second and fourth grades to weed out non-residents. In 20 residency hearings, not one [student] was proven not to be a resident, said Edwards.
Trocchia, though, was skeptical, and said students seemed to be getting around it at the high school level.
The next regular board of education meeting is scheduled for April 20 at 8 p.m.
