By Paul J. Condra
Would that this year were different. The
governor's numbers for the entire state amount to a meager .04 percent increase in aid over last year. For educators, it's a very small sum that has shaken their faith in state assistance.
In Lynbrook, the increase amounts to a little more than $116,000 just more of Gov. George Pataki's low-balling, said superintendent William Metkiff, whose staff is busy assembling this year's budget, which will be put to voters in May.
As educators see it, Pataki's strategy is to shift the burden of tax collection to the school districts in order to save governmental face.
Now they're not just expecting us to be educators, but tax collectors as well, explained East Rockaway School Board trustee Vicki Alspector.
All three Village districts, Lynbrook, Malverne and East Rockaway, will ask voters for an increase in school taxes this year. The question is how much?
Lynbrook's budget is expected to be about 8 percent larger this year, while aid to the district from the state only increased 3 percent. Voters will have to shoulder the difference.
As Metkiff explained, the state had been using a predictable formula in determining what to give schools. The governor would put out a number, followed by the Senate, and the real school aid would land in the middle. But last year, those formulas were tossed out.
There's no formulas anymore, Metkiff said. It's a serious problem, he said, for which there appears to be no obvious answer.
At a board meeting in early February when Lynbrook educators were hashing out budget issues, Metkiff made it plain to his staff and to the few people in attendance how he feels about Pataki:
I want everyone to know that the state is breaking its promise, he said. He was referring to a change in how building aid will get to schools. Where the state had promised to refund schools a percentage of their building bonds each year, now it will pay out a smaller percentage over a longer period of time. This means, in the short term, schools will have less money to work with.
But the fiscal failures don't end there. Melissa Burak, the assistant superintendent writing Lynbrook's budget, said Lynbrook schools would have gotten another $256,000 this year if the state had simply stuck to last year's formulas. Instead, the new Flex Aid program, which throws all aid programs together, capped some spending at last year's levels. With Flex Aid, schools have more discretion in spending, but less to spend.
Urgent issues
One Lynbrook board member at a recent work session gave voice to his frustration: If we're not careful, we're all going to have to leave this town. It's just getting too expensive, he said.
Among other things, the biggie at the top of the list of the Lynbrook budget is a new roof at West End Elementary School along with playground equipment and masonry work a $491,000 project for which about half was collected from last year's budget.
The roof is leaking water and has caused considerable damage. Though it isn't in danger of caving in, it has been an ongoing issue at the school for some time.
I would never leave something like that in my house, said Marie Conneally, a district resident, at a budget meeting in January.
And the pressure isn't just coming from residents.
This is just going on and on and on for years and to wait another year and a half, I'm concerned about what this water leak is going to do to other classrooms of the school, said board vice president David Penso.
Board members are hopeful the work will begin at the earliest by this summer, if not in 2003.
The situation is so grave, board members appear to have exhausted all forms of getting the precarious task done as quickly and cheaply as possible, including talk of declaring the area an emergency zone, which would fast-track state funding. But Metkiff said that is unlikely to happen as the roof is not in danger of collapsing.
And there are other costs: new bleachers at the high school and expanding the cafeteria to accommodate increased enrollment, band and chorus space at South Middle school, the addition of seven more teaching posts in the district, new technology equipment and the anticipated 15-30 percent increase in health and liability insurance since Sept. 11.
The school tax is going up, Metkiff said frankly, and the board has announced the need for a campaign to explain to voters why this has to be so.
If the voters decline the budget twice, a state formula takes over, which would raise the school tax three or four percent, Metkiff said. The superintendent said Lynbrook schools are among the top 10 districts in the county, and he hopes the voters will choose to keep it that way.
