It is not on the City of Long Beach's proposed municipal budget, with its 25 percent tax levy hike.
And it is not - not - a referendum on the unsettled teachers' contract.
This is a watershed year for the district, which has passed every school budget this century on the first vote. This makes Long Beach something of a curiosity, since in the last two years budgets in Oceanside, Baldwin, Lawrence and Island Park/West Hempstead have all been voted down at least once.
This doesn't mean Long Beach voters have deeper pockets, as some would have you believe; they're just a little hipper to the game, and how foolish an ill-considered budget rejection can be. Instead it's a show of reluctant acceptance - which may be wearing thin - that life on Long Island is expensive, and that supporting public schools is a responsibility.
The increases in this budget are the same as in past years: contractual costs, insurance costs, retirement costs. We are in lockstep with those who argue that these costs are rising far more rapidly than the public's ability to cover them. However, the solutions lie everywhere but here. Support the budget - and then fix the system. That is accomplished by sending responsive representatives to Albany, to Washington and to the school board. Voting down this budget will lead to cuts and complications that will do nothing to stem the spending. Instead, it will threaten the programs parents want this money spent on. The responsible vote is yes.
This budget adds no new programs, but doesn't cut any, either; timing is the big issue here. The vote comes as the cold war between the teachers' union and the school board approaches a melting point. The board's president and vice president, Roy Lester and Franklin Alvarado, are its chief negotiators with the union, and, since they've stuck to their austerity position in negotiations, they have earned the teachers' wrath - particularly Lester, who has been targeted for defeat by the union on Tuesday.
Now comes Joe Sinnona, the owner of a very successful real estate company in the West End and the candidate with the teachers' union's endorsement. In fact, the union has encouraged its membership and supporters to "bullet" for Sinnona, meaning voting only for him even though two seats are available. This is a waste of votes, and we doubt it's something the union's membership will be proud to discuss in their classrooms on Wednesday morning.
Nonetheless, Sinnona's campaign is legitimate, though poorly defined. His promises that the district can find alternative revenue sources through corporate sponsorships and foundational fund-raising are enticing if not original, and in fact underline the bigger problem with his candidacy.
Sinnona ran four years ago on a platform focused on starting an educational foundation, which is exactly what the district needs. The problem is that foundations can only exist independent of the board, and when Sinnona lost that race, he didn't follow through on the idea. But now he's resurrected it for this latest campaign.
We hope that if the voters turn Sinnona away again this year, he sticks around and shows some leadership on this project.
Meanwhile, he supports raises for the teachers, along with tax freezes, which is unrealistic. His claim that class sizes exceed 30 students in the high school is nonsense. We don't think he'd be a bad school board trustee, but we feel that he is only the third-most-qualified of this year's candidates.
Lester and Alvarado deserve re-election for plenty of reasons beyond the contract negotiations. Lester is an effective lobbyist for the district whose contacts in Albany far outstrip those of the other candidates. His insistence on a wage freeze for the teachers, which has earned him so much grief, is in line with the recommendations of last year's Citizens Budget Advisory Committee. We hope, once re-elected, he'll follow these negotiations through to the finish, sticking to his guns. This is the people's fight he is waging.
Alvarado, who is completing his first term, is the most impressive trustee the board has had in years, and should be elected board president if he wins another term on Tuesday. He is a world-class architect though still in his mid-30s, and there is no better ambassador for the district than an alumnus who has accomplished so much so early. If elected board president, Alvarado said, he would bring a more open style of debate to board meetings, which would be a refreshing change.
There is still the real fear, however, that the teachers' call for a bullet vote will polarize the electorate into a battle of Lester vs. Sinnona. Supporters of both men should consider giving their second vote to Alvarado.
Vote yes on the library budget
Last year's library trustee election dissolved into chaos when nobody - not even the incumbent - signed up to run. This year, incumbent Fran Adelson is running unopposed. As point-person for the library's annual Jazz Festival, her involvement with the library has in a small way made ours a better community. We wish her well in her next five-year term.
Meanwhile, each year we look at the library budget and try to figure out how the facility's director, George Trepp, runs three libraries on so relatively little money.
This year's proposed budget of $2.8 million is up an even 5 percent. Meanwhile, Nassau County Assessor Harvey Levinson ranked Long Beach's library as among the most efficiently run in the county. Sounds good to us. Vote yes.
