By:Andrew Coen
After the board voted 6-0 with one abstention on May 20 not to remove any items from the budget, which was defeated by 994 votes, the school board has had second thoughts.
The trustees and superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons received input from the community and decided to re-address the budget issue, according to Lawrence school board President Frank Parise. It is likely that $240,000 from the initial proposed $87,326,933 budget will be cut. The $240,000 reduction would lower the 2004-05 budget to $87,086,933 and reduce the budget increase from 4.7 percent to 4.4 percent.
Fitzsimons said that $240,000 in savings was found after it was learned that the enrollment projections at the Number One School in Lawrence and the Number Six School in Woodmere were lower than expected, allowing the schools to use one fewer classroom. In addition, further savings were discovered, according to Fitzsimons, because a teacher in the district is going to be offered a contract as a principal by another school district, and that position would not have to be filled.
We got a couple breaks, said Fitzsimons. It wasn-t so much that there was fat to cut, because there wasn-t, but the latest enrollment projections and the teacher leaving allows us to go ahead and trim.
Parise said, Most of the board members felt like it was a responsible budget and that no more fat could be trimmed from it, but when we learned of these savings, we decided we could go ahead and reduce it.
In order to attract the necessary votes to pass the budget on the second try, Fitzsimons said he plans to meet with local religious leaders, village officials and civic groups to argue for the vital need to pass the budget in the re-vote. Also, fliers urging the passage of the budget will be made up. I think the fact that it-s not a contested school board election and it-s just a vote on the budget will help us, said Fitzsimons.
If the budget fails again, the district would be forced into an austerity program for the second straight year and compelled to cut $1.9 million from the proposed $87.3 million total. In addition, the district would be allowed only a 2.4 percent budget increase, requiring it to cut 30 staff positions on top of the cut of 34.7 staffers already in the proposed budget.
Some of the potential cuts outlined by the Administrative Council at a May 20 meeting if $1.9 million were to be cut include $80,000 in building use, $30,000 for the Continuing Education program, $50,000 for the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) outdoor program, $45,000 in field trips, $50,000 in athletics and $95,000 in extracurricular clubs.
According to Lorraine Deller, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, districts have gone on austerity two years in row in the past, but it is very rare. Normally, the residents will realize the consequences of being on austerity for a long period of time and the damage it does to both the school system and to property values, and that usually encourages the people to work closely with their school board to get an acceptable budget passed, said Deller.
The budget failed on May 18 by a vote of 3,921 to 2,927, or 57 percent to 43 percent.
District 15 resident Saul Bahn, who voted no, said he favors consolidating the district. With the amount of money we are spending per pupil and with the enrollment going down, I cannot support this budget, he said. We need to consolidate to save money.
Judy Greenberger, who also voted no, said, We are paying very high taxes here, so I am not taking any chances.
Ronnie Friedson, who voted in favor of the budget, said, I went [to Lawrence] myself, my daughter attended schools here and I want to see the schools return to what they once were.
This is the third year in a row that a proposed District 15 budget has failed to pass on the first try. Last year-s budget failed by 1,298 votes, 3,068 to 1,770, on the first try on June 3 and by 850 votes, 3,039 to 2,189, on the second try on June 30. In 2002 the first budget try failed by 2,528 votes, but the re-vote passed by a slim 14 votes, 1,210 to 1,196, helping the district to avoid contingency.
This year-s re-vote is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., at the Number Six School, Lawrence High School, the Number Two School, the Number One School, Lawrence Middle School and Atlantic Beach Village Hall.
