By:JOSEPH KELLARD
Describing the reason why dozens of districts rejected their budgets as "tax fatigue," Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown said that if the budget, an 8.6 increase over the current budget, fails to pass again, New York state law requires the district to adopt a contingency budget.
Although the state imposes on contingency budgets a cap 2.76 percent higher than the present budget, Oceanside's $97.2 million contingency budget would actually be a 6.37 percent increase. State law permits an increase above the cap for contractual items like start-up costs for bond-related capital-improvement projects. In January 2003, voters approved a $31 million, 20-year bond to fund a district-wide capital-improvement project, and $2.5 million of the bond reflects the budget's primary increase.
"Under a contingency budget, the state requires that all contractual obligations that the board has would have to be continued," Brown explained at the board meeting on May 24. "So the board couldn't eliminate a contract that it has for legal obligations."
Under the contingency budget, the district is required to make reductions or cuts totaling about $1.8 million. The potential cuts include sports teams, kindergarten aids, non-mandated teaching assistants, intramural and co-curriculum programs, late buses for public, parochial and private schools, and custodial, grounds maintenance, and security staff personnel. The board will also consider eliminating 12 teaching position by increasing kindergarten through sixth grade class sizes to a maximum of 28 students, and six more teaching positions by eliminating high school elective courses.
The district will hold the re-vote June 15 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Schools 5, 6, 7 and 8, and a budget hearing at Merle Avenue School at 7:30 p.m. on June 7.
When the Herald asked Sue Graham, president of the school board, what sports teams would be cut, she replied, "I cannot even discuss that at this time. We will wait and see what happens on June 15, and then we will discuss it at that time."
One resident asked Brown whether, if the district had to go to a contingency budget, board members would consider the community's input before finalizing it. "I'm sure they would," Brown said. "But I think what you have to understand is that the areas [that can potentially be cut] add up to a little over $2 million. ... Cutting off $1.8 million is not going to be easy when most of the budget consists of contractual obligations." Brown added that the difference between passing the budget and going on a contingency budget for the average Oceanside home owner is 26 cents a day.
"Ninety percent of our budget increase involves mandated things we have absolutely no control over," Graham said, "leaving the 10 percent of things which we believe are required for students to get an adequate education."
Graham added that more than half of the budget's increases go toward salaries, up by $2.7 million, health insurance, by $138,523, and contributions to employee retirement, by $35,694.
One resident questioned the financial concessions administration and teachers would make. In his reply, Brown pointed out that Oceanside is the only district on Long Island that pays teachers and administrators based on supply and demand, as opposed to other districts, which pay according to a set salary schedule.
"[The other districts] have to pay that teacher even if that teacher is willing to accept less than X," Brown explained. "We are the only district that is able to pay a teacher or administrator less than X if they are willing to accept less than X. That, over the coarse of 10 or 20 years, has taken back maybe millions of dollars."
Brown also noted that Oceanside, which spends about $13,000 on each student, spends $2,500 per student less than the county average. He claimed that the board has saved more than $15 million over 10 years. "The numbers show that we're doing a good job in terms of how we're spending taxpayer money," Brown said.
In addressing the "tax fatigue" he said Long Islanders are experiencing, Brown pointed to the fact that the state is not providing aid to districts like Oceanside, which means higher taxes for property owners. He said residents are upset about reassessments, rising gas prices and heightened property taxes, and that the only place they get to vote against the rise in costs is with school budgets.
"People expressed [their tax fatigue] at the polls, and we understand that," Brown said. "And we have to address this the best we can. You have a Board of Education that works very hard looking at every dime to try to figure out how to walk that line between a quality education and reasonable budgets for the taxpayers of Oceanside. It's a very fine line to walk."
