by Jesse Serwer
The vote, accompanied by a library budget vote and uncontested school board and library board elections, brought 2,777 residents to South Side High School May 17, the biggest turnout in 10 years. Including absentee ballots, 1,408 voters voted yes and 1,258 voters voted no to the proposed $76,261,053 budget.
Voters also approved the $2,660,168 library budget. In school board elections, newcomer Kathy Horace and incumbent Vivian Lewandowski cruised to victory unopposed, with 1,672 and 1,663 votes, respectively. In library elections, William Murray Jr. bested Eileen Burke Bucaria by fewer than 75 votes.
Islandwide, 79 school budget packages passed and 45 failed, including those in the Bellmore, East Rockaway, Hewlett-Woodmere, Lawrence, Franklin Square, and Hempstead districts. Despite stiff opposition to the budget from retirees and other residents who feel they are being taxed out of their homes, Rockville Centre¹s 6.9 percent increase prevailed partly on the strength of recent accolades for local schools.
³If you are number 45 in the country, you better vote yes,² said Sarah Siegel, referring to a report in Newsweek earlier this month that ranked South Side High School among the country¹s best high schools.
As a result of the budget¹s passage, school taxes paid on the average home will increase from $7,096 to $7,824 ‹ a 10.26 percent jump that has some residents on edge. ³Hopefully the increased turnout will make the school board think about what the people are saying, and [they] will try to be more honest next year in their presentation of the numbers and percentage reality,² said one disgruntled resident, Michael Gold. ³Without retired teachers making phone calls to vote yes on the budget, they would not have made it. Next year maybe some people will form a Œno vote on the school budget committee¹ and we will hold [Superintendent Dr. William] Johnson back at least once.²
Much of the increased budget spending is the result of unfunded mandates handed down by the state and federal governments, but it also includes a 3.5 percent increase in teacher salaries as well as a new high-school art teacher and districtwide special education teaching assistants.
Outside the polls, a number of voters complained ‹ all of them anonymously ‹ about disorganized polling stations and unexpectedly long waits to vote. ³You have to stand in one line to get a ticket and wait in another to vote,² said one woman who said she works in the East Williston School District. ³In East Williston, it was much more organized.²
Another man decried the use of South Side High School as a central location, and called for the return of polling stations to all areas. ³A lot of seniors would walk over, and now they have to find a way to get here,² said the man, who did not want to be identified. ³The [school district] is discouraging people from coming out to vote ‹ mainly the people who would vote no.²
Johnson said the wait was caused by the fact that ³there were many more people in certain sections of the alphabet than in other sections, and it took a while to adjust.² He added that the Board of Education was already planning ways to streamline the process next year, and would move the polls to a more accommodating, open location within South Side High School.
³This was the largest turnout in an uncontested year as far back as I can research,² Johnson said. ³There have been larger turnouts, but there has always been a contested [school board] election. Interestingly enough, when we have contested elections, we generally have the largest margin of success.²
Comments about this story? JSerwer@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221.
