By JOSEPH KELLARD
It was the school board’s final meeting before next Tuesday’s budget vote, and Boodman implored its members to reduce the burden on taxpayers in future budgets.
“Just because you’ve been having less increases in spending percents doesn’t mean we’re still not paying more,” Boodman said.
The 12-year Long Beach resident joined a small gathering at the school district’s bond fair, held an hour before the meeting at the middle school. It was an opportunity for residents to talk one on one with school officials, architects and a construction management firm about the district’s proposed $98.9 million bond to fund a “preservation plan” — the first phase of a three-part, district-wide $350 million master plan to upgrade facilities and educational programs — that will appear on Tuesday’s ballot.
Trustees insisted that despite the economic hard times, now is the best time to reconstruct the city’s long-neglected schools, since construction costs are lower because many more contractors are bidding for work due to the housing crisis, and interest rates are lower as well.
Among the district-wide projects the bond would fund are the renovation of roofs at Lindell School, the middle school and Lido School; the construction of state-of-the-art science labs and a performing arts center at the high school; the reconstruction of the deteriorated exteriors at East, West and Lindell schools; the addition of two athletic fields and a new traffic entrance at the high school, and upgraded electrical systems at most of the district’s buildings. School officials expect 42 percent of the cost of the bond —about $38 million — to be reimbursed with state aide.
Referring to always-increasing school budgets, Boodman told the school board to “stop blaming everything on mandates,” and suggested that the district make available detailed information about those mandates, such as their requirements and costs.
“Let us know how we can lobby in Albany,” he said. “It’s time to become more active.”
Board Vice President Roy Lester responded that officials in Albany continue to be uncooperative, whether the subject is revising mandates or pleas for more state aide. “We put in for X and we get Y, and Y is always lot smaller than X,” Lester said. “They look at the Long Island people and they say, ‘You live in million-dollar homes and we live in shacks.’”
Boodman called on the board to gather and bus a large group of Long Beach constituents to lobby in the state capital — the best way to change things in Albany, he said. “Maybe it’s time to send a thousand people up there,” said Boodman, who described Long Beach schools as “mediocre, at best.”
On Tuesday, residents will vote on the district’s proposed $114.6 million 2009-10 budget, which is $2.1 million larger than the current spending plan, a 1.7 percent increase. It includes a 2.5 percent hike in the tax levy.
Terry O’Neill, the father of a third-grader at East School, expressed his concern about the January state report card on English test scores, which was released last week. O’Neill noted that despite the fact that Long Beach’s school budget is one of the 15 largest of Nassau County’s 56 districts, its fourth- and eighth-graders scored near the middle. “The best we got was 18th, by the third-graders,” O’Neill said.
Board Trustee Dr. Dennis Ryan agreed with O’Neill that most of the focus in Long Beach over the past year has been on the bond and reconstructing schools, while instruction and assessment have taken a back seat. “It needs publicity and it needs discussion,” Ryan said.
While Superintendent Dr. Robert Greenberg admitted that the report card numbers weren’t stellar, he said that middle school students have nevertheless made significant strides. Both Greenberg and board President Pat Gallagher said that this issue and the broader curriculum would be the focus of the board’s May 26 meeting.
Frank Alvarado, who will retire from the board in June, talked about focusing on greater accountability, from teachers on up. “We’re trying to build that culture,” Alvarado said. “We’re not there yet.”
Kelly Lester, Roy Lester’s daughter and a senior at Long Beach High School, said she thought it was unfair to compare some school districts with others. She said she knows students in other districts with better test scores who have never worked and are afforded plenty of time to study, while that’s not necessarily the case in a district like Long Beach. “It’s also important to look at success inside and outside the classroom as well,” she added.
John Koumarnetos, 71, a retired auto mechanic and a Long Beach resident since 1969, was attending his first school board meeting. “I have the time now, and I wanted to see what they have to say,” Koumarnetos told the Herald. Referring to what the average homeowner is expected to pay over the next 23 years for the bond, he added, “I don’t feel like paying another $19 a month.”
Another attendee, who identified herself only as Mary, said she has two children, ages 4 and 1, and moved to Long Beach from East Rockaway with her husband, Paul, four years ago. They, too, were new faces at the meeting. “We wanted to hear what their proposals were,” said Mary, “and see how it will impact our kids and our property taxes.”
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
