By Nick Buglione
Droves of concerned community members filled the seats and lined the walls inside East Meadow High School's auditorium, after learning that the district might let go nearly 70 teachers and significantly slash instructional and extracurricular programs in the coming year to offset shortfalls in state funding.
"Why can't the cuts come from the top instead of the bottom?" said Kathy Volpe, vice president of the Parkway Elementary School PTA, drawing loud applause from the crowd. "Why is it that every year the budget comes we need to lose so many good people in this district that are willing to help our children?"
East Meadow District Superintendent Dr. Robert Dillon sent out a letter dated April 25 to parents detailing the planned 8.5-percent tax increase and proposed cuts.
In total, the budget will increase more than 2 percent in the coming year, raising it from $116 million to about $119 million.
According to Dillon, next year the district will eliminate its pre-kindergarten and elementary school summer sessions, while programs in art, music, computers, athletics and intramurals will face cutbacks.
"The district is considering using grant funds for the funding of [the pre-kindergarten and elementary summer school programs]," said Board of Education Vice President Charles Goldberg.
With instructional staff cuts looming, many residents were concerned about class sizes increasing, as students will have to be pooled together to compensate for the loss of teachers.
"If you make our classes any larger, how will the teachers reach us?" 10-year-old Marissa Mazzie, a fifth-grader from Parkway Elementary, asked the board. "We will be lost."
Projections indicate that classes in grades one through five will increase from 20 to about 23 students next year, while kindergarten will be somewhere in the 19 to 22 student range, up from the current average of 16. On the secondary level, honors and Regents courses could hold anywhere from 20 to 30 students.
"Although class sizes have been increased," said Goldberg, "they are within the board of education guidelines."
A 20-percent proposed cut in athletic program staff under the 2002-2003 budget was also a point of contention for many on hand.
"The after-school activities are keeping my friends and fellow students off the streets and even keeping some of them clean," said William Quagliano, 15, a freshman in East Meadow High School.
Separate from the cuts, residents face an 8.5-percent increase in property taxes -- roughly an addition of $6 per $100 of assessed home value. Under the current budget, East Meadow homeowners pay $69.93 per $100 of assessed home value, which translates to $4,200 for an average house assessed at $6,000. With the proposed increase for next year, East Meadow residents' school taxes could jump about $400.
"Considering the financial constraint the district faces, this budget still preserves the essential educational quality of our schools," said Goldberg, as the crowd groaned in response.
Parents, however, did not seem upset over the proposed tax hike, but rather that the increase was coupled with significant cuts. Under the new budget, they will pay more and get less.
"We recognize that this was a difficult time and we recommended that reductions in staff be considered," said Steve Jacobs, who served on the district's financial advisory committee. The school board formed the committee, which comprises community members to ensure public comment is considered in the budget-drafting process. Jacobs noted, "we said the expense reductions should be implemented in a comprehensive, balanced and impartial manner." He added that he believes, in certain instances, cuts were not made in that manner, in particular to the Quest program. The Quest program, which was put in place for the development of gifted students, is slated to lose half its staff.
Though public participation during the recent board meeting dealt heavily with the budget, the board offered few responses to the remarks and questions of the crowd. Both the superintendent and the board were quick to point out that the April 25 meeting was not the actual budget presentation, which was scheduled to take place April 30 at Clarke High School. At that meeting full explanation into the figures would be offered, according to the board.
The lack of immediate answers made the often-restless crowd even more volatile, prompting one infuriated parent to shout, "Answer the questions! You're giving us lip service!"
Charlie Carter, president of the newly formed Parkway Civic Association, questioned the board about a reported central administration pay increase called for in the budget, but neither the board nor the superintendent offered a response at the meeting.
Leon Campo, assistant superintendent for finance and administration, confirmed the increase, but said that contractual obligations bind the district to raising salaries across the board.
"I don't know of any employee that will not receive a pay increase," Campo said, adding that the district has looked into the possibility of deferring the raises, but the labor unions have not been receptive.
Outgoing Board of Education President Clement Greico offered a few words on how state aid impacted the 2002-2003 proposed budget.
"This year our state aid allocation in the government proposed is virtually the same as last year," he said. State funding made up about 20 to 25 percent of the 2001-2002 budget.
"This creates major problems as East Meadow is dependent on state aid as are other districts," Greico said. "We made a budget based upon our government's state aid allocation last year."
For weeks, district officials have forecasted an increase in property taxes and significant cutbacks, placing the blame largely on inadequate state funding. Yet, parents were not entirely sold on the point, leading some to accuse the district of seriously mismanaging its money.
"The numbers just don't add up," said Tom Briody, who has two children in East Meadow schools. "The expectation is that the state is going to raise the amount of revenue that they'll give to the school districts. If we submit a budget with all these staff cuts, we're locked in. Even if the state comes back and restores some of the money, the only thing that will do is offset the taxes. You can't restore the programs."
Briody was referring to recent reports that Gov. George Pataki, amid heavy pressure from lawmakers and others, is planning to include extra education spending in the state budget.
Further criticism was directed at the district's plan to move its central offices out of East Meadow High School and into the Salisbury facility it will stop renting to Nassau BOCES in the coming year. The move is being made so the office space at the high school can be converted into extra classrooms to compensate for its growing enrollment. However, when BOCES moves out of the Salisbury facility, the district will lose about $500,000 in rent revenue.
"It is less expensive to relocate administration to Salisbury than to build additional classrooms at East Meadow High School," Dillon said. "Secondly, additional building at East Meadow High School would eliminate athletic fields."
Some members of the community maintain that the district would be better served by selling the Salisbury building to generate extra revenue, or by keeping the renters and consolidating the space central administration is currently using.
A second public budget hearing will be held on May 7 at 8 p.m. at East Meadow High School. East Meadow's budget vote takes place Tuesday, May 21 in the district's five elementary schools.
