By Hector Flores
The district will revote the budget on June 20. The Bellmore Board of Education held a budget hearing on Tuesday, June 7, as a last-ditch effort to garner support for its $24.5 million 2005-06 budget, which was defeated on May 17 by 220 votes. The budget received 803 no and 583 yes votes.
Jay Breakstone, the board president, said district officials decided to offer the original budget for a revote because they believe that it's the best spending plan they have to offer to the community.
Breakstone said the budget, if passed, would:
€ Maintain academic programs and reasonable class sizes.
€ Comply with special-education mandates.
€ Improve standardized test scores.
€ Provide quality services to students while minimizing the tax burden.
The proposed budget would increase spending by $1.5 million over the current year's $22.9 million spending plan. District officials attribute the increase to rising retirement, insurance and transportation costs, along with unfunded state and federal mandates.
State aid is also in perpetual decline. In the late 1980s, state aid funded 30 percent of the budget. In the 2005-06, state aid will account for 12.9 percent.
According to district calculations, the tentative budget would cost the average homeowner, with a home assessed at $430,000, $174 more a year, or $3.34 a week.
If the budget is defeated, it would force the district into an austerity budget, and $700,000 would have to be cut from the currently proposed spending plan. Under a contingency budget, homeowners would pay $41.65 a year, a savings of $132 a year.
Under an austerity budget, the board would consider cutting or eliminating the following programs, activities or services:
€ Class size.
€ Full-day kindergarten.
€ Gifted program.
€ Music, art and foreign language.
€ Clerical services.
€ Custodial services.
€ Playground supervision.
€ Field trips
€ Purchase of library books.
The following would also be in jeopardy if the budget is defeated:
€ Use of school district buildings and fields by all outside groups,
including sports leagues, scouts and civic groups.
€ Maintenance and custodial projects.
€ New equipment purchases.
Impact of an austerity budget
Sheldon Dumain, the Bellmore superintendent, said there are a number of ways that an austerity budget would affect the school district.
A failed budget would hinder the district's cost-savings initiatives. For example, he said, "We had budgeted $37,000 to buy a bus, and over time we would have saved money. With our own bus, we would not need to contract a bus company. Also, a new truck would have saved us maintenance costs, but if the budget is defeated, we are stuck with our old bus and old truck."
Dumain added that a failed budget would also endanger the district's ongoing capital projects, which would result in the gradual decline of school buildings.
"Painting projects would be gone," Dumain said. "If you go on a painting schedule of five years, you will be able to maintain the look of a building, but on an austerity budget, you will not be able to paint. In the long run, the longer a building goes without maintenance, the more expensive repairs will be in the future."
Dumain said other maintenance projects that would suffer include plumbing, ceiling and floor repairs.
He added, "Some of the state aid we receive depends greatly on our expenditure. If we spend less on computer software or BOCES services, the level of state aid will go down the following year."
A failed budget would also force many Bellmore residents to pay for certain services that the district currently picks up. "The board would have to choose one building and set an hourly rate for anyone using that building," Dumain said. "The rate would include electric, heat, water and custodial services. In addition, anyone using a field will also have to pay."
Dumain added that the district would need four to five years to recoup the $700,000 that was cut. "We will put back a small amount year after year," he said. "But the district will still have the same mandatory increases. Ultimately, it is our children who will not recover from the budget cuts."
Separating fact from fiction
Breakstone explained that the current budget is the tightest that the district has developed while maintaining educational programs. "There are no new administrative positions in the district," he said. "The administrator for instruction is also the administrator for special education, and the assistant superintendent of business is also the assistant superintendent for technology."
Janet Goller, a Bellmore school trustee, added that the superintendent's office is also responsible for personnel. "Over the years, we have combined positions in an effort to cut back in spending," Goller said. "We just can't cut anyone else out."
Goller said that, in addition to doing double duty, the Bellmore administration is among the lowest paid in Nassau County. "They are in the bottom 25 percent in the county," she said.
Dumain added that there is a misconception that voting down the budget would eliminate high-paying teaching positions. In reality, only the most recently hired teachers would be let go, but for each teacher lost, classroom instruction would suffer, he said.
"Let's say that a teacher with a master's degree costs the district $70,000 a year," Dumain said. "If we were to get rid of eight of them, we would hypothetically save the district $700,000, but it would increase the district's class sizes from 24 to 29."
Dumain said any increase in class size would affect the district's academic performance. "Right now, teachers give children individual attention," Dumain said. "Teachers examine a child and construct teaching strategies around that individual child. With larger class sizes, individualized instruction will no longer be possible."
Ted Tanenbaum, board trustee, addressed the misconception that district officials have expense accounts and attend lavish conference trips. They don't.
Dumain said that he was upset people believe this. "People have asked me, 'Do you eat $5,000 worth [of meals]?' I've told them that I don't eat at all."
The superintendent also said that conference trips are not vacations, but learning experiences. "The district spends a total of $25,000 a year to attend these conferences, which is like taking a course. Teachers learn things from other teachers and lecturers. The conferences are attended so that teachers can apply what they've learned and improve on their classroom instruction."
Comments about this story? HFlores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
