Herald Community Newspapers
Support incumbents in O'side, I.P.
It's the year of the incumbents on the Oceanside and Island Park Boards of Education, since there are no challengers. But uncontested elections are no excuse not to show your support for Maryanne Lehrer and Robert Transom in Oceanside and Steve Foster in Island Park.
Between them, Lehrer and Foster have devoted nearly 60 years to their boards. While trustees often last just a few terms, these two anchors provide their boards with invaluable knowledge, experience and historical perspective.
After 27 years, Foster seems as eager as ever to commit to another five years on the Island Park school board. What's more, he has served as president for the past 10 years. Among his most impressive accomplishments was spearheading the effort to build a sorely needed new library in the village.
In Oceanside, Lehrer will tack another three-year term to her 30-year record, while Transom is seeking to begin his second decade on the board. Lehrer's strength has been her work with officials at the county, state and national levels to get more representation and state aid for Oceanside, and she vows to continue that fight. Transom, meanwhile, has made the most of his expertise as a property manager and construction consultant, sitting on buildings and grounds committees. He has also been instrumental in modernizing the schools' technologies, which, the district claims, has saved it millions of dollars. Transom aims to continue the upgrading.
In short, Foster, Lehrer and Transom have earned our support, and residents should show theirs by voting for them on May 15.
Vote yes on budgets
Both the Oceanside and Island Park school districts are proposing budgets that will reduce the growth of the tax levy, the money to be raised through property taxes.
Island Park's $29.4 million budget includes a 3.8 percent tax levy increase, a sizable cut from the current budget, whose tax levy increase was 6.3 percent. In Oceanside, the proposed $116.8 million budget offers a reduction in the tax levy increase of nearly 1 percent, from 4.8 percent in the current budget to 3.9 percent next year. Both districts' levy increases, as well as their overall budget increases, are at or below the county average, and this is significant.
We understand residents who, fed up with the heavy tax burden, vote against school budgets in protest. But much of the budgetary burden is out of the districts' control, and there are more effective ways to reduce taxes. We also hear, and certainly agree with, residents who believe schools can try even harder to improve in areas that they can control, like improving test scores and cutting expenses.
For example, when Oceanside decided this year to budget some $70,000 to mandate testing for students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses - electives that can potentially save parents plenty in college tuition fees - the Herald deemed this an unnecessary expense.
Nonetheless, we still believe that both districts continue to be among the best in the county at keeping expenses down. Their budgets are reasonable, and students are getting the education they need. The Herald encourages voters to pass the budgets in both Island Park and Oceanside.
