By Nick Buglione
Under its released 2002-2003 board-adopted budget, East Meadow plans to let go 8 percent of its teaching and support staff, about 55 to 60 teachers, to help offset expense increases and a shortfall in state funding. At the May 7 budget presentation, Superintendent Dr. Robert Dillon said that 50 have already received lay-off notices.
"Many schools are experiencing big increases in taxes and service and staff reductions," Dillon said. "The districts around us are being hit." He went on to note that the district hoped the natural attrition of teachers, either through retirement or moving, would lower the amount of cuts that have to be made.
Yet, parents and concerned community members, who have flocked to recent meetings to voice their disapproval of the proposed budget, maintain that other districts are not making comparable cuts to instructional staff, despite facing similar rising expenses and level increases in state aid.
A survey of 12 nearby South Shore districts found that none planned to cut instructional staff in their 2002-2003 proposed budgets.
"That was a real important priority for us," said North Merrick School District Superintendent David Feller. "We're a small district, and any cuts we made in our programs would be felt very significantly."
In some instances, district officials said they planned to add teachers.
"We tried to keep the budget as lean as possible," said Dr. Herb Brown, superintendent of the Oceanside School District, as the district faced rising costs and uncertainty over state aid.
However, in order to compensate for increased enrollment, Brown said the district would hire eight additional teachers in the coming year.
Ron Friedman, superintendent of the Long Beach School District, echoed Brown's statements.
"We had to do a lot of belt tightening in other areas, but we didn't want to cut the instructional staff," he said. According to Friedman, Long Beach Schools will add about five teachers under its 2002-2003 proposed budget.
When questioned why East Meadow was making significant instructional staff cuts while other districts were not, Assistant Superintendent Leon Campo cited a number of factors.
"Comparisons are hard, unless you are comparing apples and apples," Campo said. "When comparing with other districts, you have to look at their class sizes because in many cases they might not have class sizes as favorable as us."
Right now, among the 53 school districts in Nassau County, the East Meadow School district ranks second best in kindergarten class size and seventh best in class sizes for grades one through five, he added.
On several occasions, both Campo and Dillon have pointed toward surveys conducted by the New York State School Boards Association indicating that a flat state education budget this year would lead to 70 percent of New York districts slashing instructional positions, in an attempt to demonstrate East Meadow is not alone.
He also noted that some districts have proposed double-digit property-tax increases in lieu of laying off teachers, which is not necessarily a viable solution for East Meadow.
The district's 2002-2003 proposed budget calls for a 9.6-percent property-tax increase, or about an extra $7 per every $100 of assessed value.
Though at the budget meetings some East Meadow community members stated that they would favor heavier taxes as opposed to significant cuts, Campo said not everyone feels that way.
"There are 50,000 people living in East Meadow, and we heard from 600 of them," he said. "I have had a number of residents call me saying that they can't handle this tax increase and why aren't we cutting more."
More teachers are being laid off because over the last three years some 70 have been hired, East Meadow officials say. Parents, however, believe that the district should let go more non-instructional and administrative positions.
With three assistant superintendents on staff, some community members also contend that the administration is top heavy.
"The district has had three assistant superintendents when we were a fraction of the size that we are today," said Campo. "To say that three assistant superintendents is top heavy is political nonsense."
With a proposed budget of nearly $120 million and an enrollment of about 8,000 students, the East Meadow School District is one of the largest on Long Island.
Further criticism has been directed at the central administration's plan to move its offices out of East Meadow High School and into the Salisbury facility that Nassau BOCES will move out of this summer. The move, which will be financed with $200,000 from a 2000 bond issue, is being made so the office space at the high school can be converted into extra classrooms to accommodate growing enrollment. Yet, when BOCES moves out, the district will lose $500,000 in rent revenue.
Last week, Dillon said BOCES was eager to purchase its own offices, so the district would lose their rent revenue sooner or later. However, Nassau BOCES President George Farber recently wrote a letter to the East Meadow Herald stating that "it was not our choice to move. The East Meadow School District would not renew our lease."
BOCES spokeswoman Barbara Behrens confirmed the source of the letter and its content. "It was always our hope to rent the Salisbury center long-term," she said.
Campo and school-district officials stand by their belief that BOCES eventually intended on buying their own facility, citing three referendums in the last three years in which they've attempted to purchase a building. Just this spring, a referendum in which BOCES sought to buy a Garden City building was voted down. They will be moving their offices to that center, but on a rental basis.
"It sounds to me that they want to buy, and that's consistent with what they told us," Campo said. Since the East Meadow School District won't be using all of the space at the Salisbury facility, they offered to share the building with BOCES.
"They did propose sharing the space in the building, but it wasn't enough space to accommodate our needs," said Behrens.
The district now is talking with two interested "enterprises" about renting the leftover space, Campo said.
District Proposed Budget Proposed Tax Proposed Teacher
Increase Increase Cuts
East 2.55% 9.64% 55-60
Meadow
Bellmore- 2.78% 5.19% 0
Merrick
Bellmore 6.47% 8.99% 0
N. Bellmore 10.45% 5.89% 0
Merrick 2.13% 6.63% 0
N. Merrick 6.71% 11.66% 0
Baldwin 8.86% 11.29% 0
Oceanside 5.99% 7.43% 0
Long Beach 3.99% 6.87% 0
Valley Stream 5.36% 5.91% 0
Central
Valley Stream 3.74% 9.19% 0
District 13
Valley Stream 9.29% 12.39% 0
District 24
Valley Stream 12.37% 9.96% 0
District 30
