By Marley Seaman
The $48.5 million budget, defeated by more than 200 votes on May 16, passed by a margin of 430 votes on June 20. A total of 1,565 people voted in favor of the budget, with 1,135 opposed. Almost 500 more people participated in the re-vote than in the first one, in which the budget was defeated 1,207 to 1,004. Had the board's budget failed again, the district would have been required to use a contingency budget.
"It's a huge victory for all the children of our community," said Dr. Carol Eisenberg, West Hempstead's Superintendent of Schools, after the results were announced at 9:20 p.m. The community members and school official were clearly relieved after Board President Trocchia read the results. Residents broke into applause, and Eisenberg dabbed her eyes with a tissue as she spoke. "The community worked hard for this," she said. "We didn't do this, they did."
The approved budget calls for spending of $48,548,512, an increase of 6.78% from the previous year. More than $650,000 of that amount will be used for the first bond payment on the new West Hempstead library building.
Community members and teachers both worked to maximize turnout. Trocchia said the 2,700 voters were the most at a West Hempstead school election in 15 or 20 years. Although the number of 'no' votes decreased slightly, the district may have to plan on an opposition of 1,100 or more votes in the future.
Parents stood outside West Hempstead Middle School, where the vote was held. The waved signs encouraging drivers to come to the school and cast their votes. Similar messages were visible at other district schools. The district opened the polls at 6 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. in the hope that more people would come.
Barbara Silkes-Kupferberg, a member of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), said that local teachers made more than 400 calls on June 19 to encourage residents to vote in favor of the budget. Teachers are not normally allowed to encourage residents to vote yes or no on school budgets, but because the teachers were calling from the local NYSUT office and not from school grounds, she said, those calls were legal.
The members of the West Hempstead School Board opted after a May 18 meeting to put the same budget up for a second vote. Board President Vincent Trocchia was the dissenting voice at that meeting. He said that the board make some minor reductions to the budget as a sign that they understood the concerns of the opposition.
"I wish they had changed something," Trocchia told the Herald. "I felt it was a strong budget, but as I said publicly, I felt the public had spoken and something should have been changed on it."
Trocchia said that he always expected the budget to pass, but felt less certain after the controversy surrounding Monsignor James Lisante of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in West Hempstead. Prior to the May vote, Lisante spoke out against the budget, saying that senior citizens on fixed incomes and young married couples could not afford to pay increasing school taxes. He also said that board members were insensitive to the problems caused by school taxes.
Lisante was traveling and not available to comment to the Herald on the budget's passage. In his June 18 edition of his "A Message from Monsignor Jim" newsletter, however, he wrote that his opposition was unchanged.
"Had there been even a small decrease in the proposed budget, I'd be writing to you to encourage support for the budget," he said. "But that decrease never came. Instead the budget is exactly as it was before. Not a dollar of our tax burden is reduced."
Lisante also remarked that after the budget was defeated, he heard "more anti-Catholic bigotry...than at any other time in my ten years as [St. Thomas'] Pastor."
Some residents called Lisante's opposition ill-advised, and said he was wrong to denounce the budget from the pulpit. Lisante countered that he was fully informed on the issue and was speaking up on behalf of his parishioners. He also praised Trocchia for listening to his concerns, writing that his criticism of the board members' sensitivity was "overstated."
