By Nick Buglione
Even with all that uncertainty, and the fact that the budget vote is only about two months away, few residents turned out for the East Meadow School District¹s annual budget-input hearing at the Salisbury Center Monday.
About 15 people showed up and only two spoke at the brief meeting, which was created two years ago after the community lobbied for the opportunity to make recommendations while the budget is being crafted.
³I am sick over how few people are here,² said Nadine Salzman, an East Meadow parent with children in Parkway Elementary School and Woodland Middle School. ³The community asked for us to have this every year and I¹m sick over [the attendance]. What can we do to get people out here?²
While the community offered little input at the hearing, the district offered even less on the budget, which will be put to a vote on Tuesday, May 17. That¹s because it¹s difficult for school officials to predict how much spending and taxes will increase when the teachers contract is still not in place and doubt remains about state-aid figures, Deputy Superintendent Leon Campo said.
³The teachers contract is one of the uncertainties that can determine the size of the budget and impact to the taxpayer,² Campo said.
Teachers¹ salaries and benefits account for the lion¹s share of the budget, which this school year totaled well over $100 million. When the new contract is finally ironed out, teachers will be getting a raise, Campo said. How much it will be and how it will impact taxpayers, however, remains unclear.
Some 700 East Meadow School District teachers have been without a contract since their five-year deal expired on Aug. 31, 2004. School officials and the East Meadow Teachers Association began meeting with a state-appointed mediator in September, after the two sides couldn¹t come to terms on their own.
The school district is stepping up its negotiating efforts, recently agreeing to meet with the union in between mediation sessions. The teachers had previously been pushing for such meetings.
Campo said the two sides have a number of private sit-downs planned, as well as another session with the mediator on March 11. ³We want to keep a positive dialogue,² he said. ³If we can make good things happen in between [mediation], that¹s also good.²
EMTA President John Gallagher said recent talks have been encouraging, but believes the union and school district should have been negotiating face-to-face earlier in the collective-bargaining process. While neither side is discussing specific salary and benefit proposals on the table, Gallagher said significant points still need to be worked out.
He also said he doesn¹t expect a new contract to be in place by the end of the month, but hopes teachers have one by the end of the school year.
If a deal isn¹t reached by the time of the school-budget vote, the district will simply have to estimate what teachers¹ salaries and benefits will be in the next school year, Campo said. And residents would have to vote on a spending plan and tax levy that could change drastically in the ensuing weeks based on the outcome of the contract talks.
Compounding the problem, the school district isn¹t sure how much aid it will be getting from the state. Under Gov. George Pataki¹s proposed budget, East Meadow would receive about a $500,000 increase. Last year, the school district received $30 million in state funding.
Even as legislators lobby to get the school district more money, Superintendent Dr. Robert Dillon said the partnership that once existed between the state and the school districts has eroded. ³The amount of state aid, though more in gross dollars, doesn¹t keep up with the cost to do business,² Dillon said, because of skyrocketing expenses that can¹t be controlled, such as health insurance, retirement plans and fuel costs. ³That¹s a problem.²
He continued: ³We¹re looking at a half million more in aid. That translates into 6 to 7 percent of what we need in order to maintain programs.²
The school district doesn¹t plan to cut programs or lay teachers off in the coming year, which means homeowners can look forward to another significant tax hike. Under this year¹s school budget, the tax levy went up about 8.2 percent. Owing to a tax-burden shift that forced residential property owners to account for more of the generated school taxes than commercial businesses, East Meadow residents actually wound up absorbing a 10.4-percent raise, paying about $177 on every $100 of their home¹s assessed value.
Comments about this story? NBuglione@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
