By LARRY MAIER
Board members, amid shouts of encouragement from the roughly 300 Roosevelt parents, teachers and students attending the meeting, said the cuts would force the district to fire almost 70 teachers and staff members and eliminate the kindergarten and athletic programs.
School Board President Darren Connor said the cuts would be "devastating, and destroy" the district.
State Education Commissioner Richard Mills has threatened to dissolve Roosevelt schools and send students to neighboring districts like Bellmore-Merrick, East Meadow and Baldwin. Most residents in surrounding communities and within Roosevelt have balked at that potential outcome. Given the current state of Roosevelt schools, however, resistance within the Roosevelt community to a breakup may be weakening.
A day after the special meeting last Thursday, Mills announced that he would "supersede" the board's decision and empower a state-appointed review panel to make the cuts necessary to keep the district afloat until June.
"If the cuts are not made, the district will run out of funds before the end of the school year," said Mills, who had told the Roosevelt School Board to make the cuts at its Dec. 17 meeting. When the board declined to make the cuts then, its deadline was extended until Jan. 3.
Mills has also, in the past, threatened to oust the Roosevelt School Board if it did not make the mandated budget cuts. Despite their failure to do so on two occasions now, they will remain in control of the district, just not its budget, said a state Education Department spokesman.
Roosevelt's budget cannot be cut until at least mid-January. One member of the state's three-person review panel resigned after the Jan. 3 meeting. By state education law, there must be a minimum of three members on the panel. Mills has recommended additional names to the Board of Regents, and they will select a new member at the board's next meeting on Jan 15.
That gives the state Legislature a small window to enact state takeover legislation and come up with a financial rescue package for Roosevelt.
State lawmakers, like Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) whose district includes Roosevelt, have recently said that they are optimistic that measures can be taken to save Roosevelt schools once the Legislature reconvenes Jan. 9.
SH: A district in chaos
At the recent school board meeting, many audience members cheered as school trustees voiced their reasons for rejecting the budget cuts, challenged the Legislature to provide more money for their district and criticized the Department of Education for demanding that the district cut important educational programs.
"I will go into debt for the rest of my life to make sure [Roosevelt students] get the education they need," Trustee Daphne Adedeji said.
"They are not respecting this community," said Trustee Sara Gillard, of the legislature's failure to provide more money and the commissioner's ever-present threat to oust the locally elected board. "Whether they remove this board or not, I'll go down fighting."
While some school-board members pledged that they would continue the battle, others indicated that they were tiring of the fight.
Trustee Rodney Romain announced he intended to resign from the board. "I don't want to be a part of decimating the education of our students in this district," Romain said.
Another board member, Ira Gerald, resigned Dec. 28 and was replaced by Gillard.
Board Vice President Kathleen Abel and Assistant Superintendents Kwame Boayke and Dr. Herschel Williams did not even attend the critical budget meeting.
Superintendent Horace Williams, who the school board attempted to fire in the fall only to have their decision overruled by the state, remained silent throughout the meeting.
Lavinia Dickerson, a member of the state review panel, declined to answer questions from the audience. And audience members, many of them angry and confused, had plenty of questions. The school board provided few answers.
One young woman asked whether Roosevelt was being singled out and if other districts in the state were being forced to make such drastic cuts. The board did not respond and, in doing so, failed to mention that the Buffalo and Rochester school districts were recently forced to lay off hundreds of teachers and cut programs. Given the weakening economy and the negative financial impact of Sept. 11, there is simply not as much money available to school districts in need, state officials say.
SH: Where's the money?
Another women asked, "Where is all the money going?" Because of a small commercial tax base, Roosevelt residents pay some of the highest tax rates in Nassau County to support their schools. Many residents are upset that, despite rising taxes, their schools continue to fall deeper into debt.
The question also referred to claims made to Mills by the state review panel that the Roosevelt board has mishandled funds, failed to spend money on necessary building repairs and misspent funds on trips to Florida and Baltimore. The current school board has also, according to the review panel, failed to file for numerous state and federal grants for which it was eligible.
Again, instead of answering the question, the board dodged it, suggesting that the woman review a copy of the district's budget.
Much of the evening's dialogue devolved into defiant rhetoric as residents considered withholding taxes and called neighboring districts' reluctance to accept Roosevelt students racially motivated.
Many residents pledged to travel to Manhattan to protest at the Board of Regents' January meeting. One man asked if the district would provide busing. Connor said it would and was asked by another man how the district would pay for it. Connor did not answer.
