By Jeff Lipton
The school board now has three options: adopt an austerity budget, which would automatically cut an additional $1,536,941 from the present budget; present the same budget to the voters for a second time; or hold another vote after further reducing the budget through selective cuts. Some board members said they are leaning toward holding a special election after further reducing the budget.
My hope is that it will go up for a re-vote, which would be in the best interests of the school district, said board president Frank Argento. I'm hoping we consider a re-vote and tweaking it somewhat.
He said discussion and a decision on what to do could come as early as the Tuesday, May 28 school board meeting, which will be held after presstime.
But some district residents said if a re-vote is taken, the cuts must be significant enough to persuade residents to support the budget.
I'm glad, said Barney Edelman of Cedarhurst about the budget going down in defeat. I think the budget is out of control. It wasn't going to pass unless they made major changes in it.
There's plenty of waste that they can cut, especially at the top levels, the administrators making over $100,000, he added.
The last time the Lawrence school budget was turned back by voters was in 1995 when it lost by four votes. That year, the budget was passed after a re-vote.
Despite the more than 2-to-1 defeat of the proposed 2002-2003 $82.6 million budget last week, school officials still insist they presented a reasonable and fair budget. Sam Donato, District 15's interim assistant superintendent for business, pointed out that the Lawrence budget ranked in the lower 25th percentile of budget increases in Nassau County and voters in those other districts passed 48 budgets.
Our budget reflected a very prudent budget, Donato said.
The district made more than $5 million in cuts to arrive at the $82.6 million figure, eliminating 70 staff positions, said Argento. But he added that the budget was a hot topic during the election campaign of school board candidates. He said when four of the five candidates come out against the budget, it was doomed to failure. A record voter turnout in District 15 of 10,799 voters came out on May 21 to cast their ballots for two school board posts. But more than 3,000 didn't bother to vote on the budget because they apparently were so preoccupied with electing their choice for school board, officials said.
The budget showed a 5.6 percent hike, carrying a built-in 7.9 percent increase on the tax levy. The tax rate would have increased $4.13 per $100 of assessed valuation, meaning for an average home assessed at $8,000, residents would have been asked to shell out $330 more a year in school taxes.
Donato said he was not surprised the budget failed because there was a lot of anger and upsetment by the community over a $3.5 million deficit resulting in a 14 percent tax hike for 2001-2002. Edelman said that, combined with this year's proposed tax levy increase of 7.9 percent, totaled a 22 percent increase, which is why, he said, the budget was shot down.
School officials said they will try to avoid going on austerity, or a contingency budget, which will happen if a second vote fails. A contingency budget means the district will not pay for the community's use of buildings and grounds and if a dance or community show is performed at one of the buildings, the group sponsoring it must pay a fee. In addition, all funds set aside for instructional equipment such as computers and desks and chairs would be eliminated from the contingency budget. All capital expenditures for school building improvements would be done away with, except in the case of an emergency. School lunch subsidies could also be eliminated. In addition, the reserves the school board put in for workers' compensation and accrued absences must be reduced. Also, a small amount in student supplies would be cut.
The new budget must be approved by July 1 or the district will be on austerity. Donato said he believes a couple of hundred thousand dollars in cuts must be made for it to have a chance to pass, since only 32 percent voted in favor of it. Going on austerity would not be a source of pride for the district, he said.
Donato said the district received a bit of good news from the state: the district will get about $30,000 more in state aid, which will help reduce the budget. But that will be more than offset by $33,000, the amount the district must lay out for defibrillators, which are mandated but not being funded by the state.
I think we will be okay and we will come out of this thing with the budget under control, Argento said.
Board member Dr. David Sussman said, The defeat of the budget [on May 21] was a foregone conclusion. We have to bring the budget back into a reasonable figure. That's what we need to do. We certainly have the mandate from voters to accomplish that goal.
