By KAREN RICE
The school board has sent voting notification cards to all registered voters in the district and posted the unusual Thursday revote date in local newspapers, including the Nassau Herald and the school's newsletter, The Lawrence Express, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Rosenbaum. The board has also held a number of open meetings concerning the budget to keep residents informed about the issues and to hear residents' comments.
The initial $82.6 million budget proposal was overwhelmingly defeated on May 21, by a count of 4,774 votes to 2,246.
The results of District 15's revote will determine if the district will go forward with its modified $81,349,695 budget and 5.99 percent tax increase or be forced onto an austerity budget where $1,536,941 will automatically be cut from the present budget. The revised budget proposal is a 4 percent budget-to-budget increase and was formally adopted at a June 13 budget hearing.
In a telephone interview, Rosenbaum said he is confident and hopeful that the budget will pass and feels that the board has put together a very responsible budget package.
Other residents disagreed and felt that the budget proposal should include more cuts in administrative positions and less cuts in the reserve funds.
I think it's unfortunate that the board did not take the necessary steps for the necessary cuts, said Mel Lifshitz of Lawrence, who unsuccessfully ran for a school board seat in the May 21 election. They took money out of the reserves and that is a mistake. This is giving the school district a black eye. They should take a long hard look at cutting administrative positions.
Jay Gelman of Lawrence, who also ran for school board trustee and lost, agreed that the board should have cut more administrative positions and taken less from reserves. There were better places to make cuts than in the reserves, Gelman said. The most easy cuts were made. There is a lot of room to make administrative cuts. There is too much support staff
