By Kate E. Salute
The spending plan, an increase of 5.34 percent over the current budget, had met with little opposition during public hearings and Board of Education meetings, yet it received 1,207 no votes and only 1,004 yeses.
Meanwhile, the library budget, which had aroused evident dissatisfaction among residents in recent weeks, passed narrowly, with 1,090 yes votes to 1,056 no¹s.
³I¹m despondent ‹ very disappointed and dismayed,² said West Hempstead¹s superintendent of schools, Carol D. Eisenberg, the morning after the vote. ³This should not have happened. Our budget-to-budget increase was only 5.34 percent, and the rest was the library bond.²
Eisenberg continued, ³This is very disheartening, and a detriment to the homeowners and the community. We¹ve had many budget meetings, we have an open board with open dialogue. This should not have happened.²
Members of the Board of Education met May 18 to decide on one of three possible courses of action: offer the budget again, unchanged, in a revote; make changes to it before a revote; or go immediately to a contingency budget, which means cuts in staffing, programs and services. No decision was reached, though the majority of the board and residents who attended expressed their desire to put the same budget up for a revote. The lone dissenter at the meeting, board President Vincent Trocchia, said he felt the margin of failure was a message from the public ³Everyone has an opinion on what happened,² Trocchia said, ³but I think it¹s a message to do better.²
Trustee Carole Rilling, who ran unopposed and captured 1,186 votes, said, ³While I think we should put up the same budget, I think we could end up alienating some people who will think we're arrogant for doing so.²
³If we cut so much as a penny from this budget,² Trustee Davis Whelpley said adamantly, ³it will never pass on the first vote ever again.²
Board Vice President Pam Lotito chimed in as well. ³I just don¹t think that people understand the budget, and they depend on other people telling them how to vote,² she said.
³It was the first time in my 14 years on the board that I felt we had an excellent budget,² said Trustee Martin Kaye. ³Maybe we didn¹t inform the public well enough. So whatever we do, it needs to reach every far corner of West Hempstead, including the religious institutions.²
³If we go on contingency,² Rilling asked Eisenberg, ³will sports be affected?"
³Something will be affected ‹ something will be hurt,² Eisenberg replied. ³One district cut all the junior varsity teams.²
Seth Bykofsky, a community activist and father of a West Hempstead high school junior, told the board, ³This budget is the best possible budget, and there is nothing wrong with the best. Don¹t worry about people thinking that it¹s arrogance to put it up as is. Just say, ŒI feel good about it.¹ We owe it to our children.²
Attendees spent the remainder of the meeting strategizing how to get the word out about the budget and the vote, should the board choose a revote, as is. Community activists, PTA members and parents of student athletes vowed to get the word out in any way possible.
In addition to the budget, a busing proposition presented to the district by PTA members also failed, 1,163 to 913. The measure proposed uniformity in the mileage beyond which busing is provided for grades K through 5. The district currently provides busing for students in grades K through 3 who live farther than 3/4 of a mile from school, and for those in grades 4 and 5 who are farther than 1 mile away. (The distance is 1 1/2 miles for eighth- through 12th-graders.) The proposition offered a 3/4-mile limit for grades K through 5.
Chris Fennes, West Hempstead Elementary Schools PTA co-president, who led the petition, said, ³I don¹t think enough people understood it ‹ the people who came out to vote no voted no across the board without looking. I thought we got the word out to the parents, but not enough votes. If it doesn¹t go up again this year, I¹ll see to it that it goes up again next year and the word gets out better.²
On the subject of the budget, Fennes said, ³I feel that once again, not enough registered voters actually voted, assuming that everything would go through fine. I think there was a community leader who misinformed the people at a time that didn¹t give the board enough time to re-inform. The district worked very hard to keep the increase low like we suggested, and I hope they put it up again.²
Along with Rilling, Board of Education Trustee James Mariano was re-elected without opposition, with 1,202 votes. Both have been on the board for 12 years.
Malverne school budget
The Malverne School District¹s 2006-07 budget of nearly $40 million met with the public¹s narrow approval ‹ a margin of 42 votes, 755 to 713. As a result, there will be more in-house special education offerings, a new curriculum-writing program to address various unfunded mandates, and no cuts in programming.
With the 992 votes Marguerite O'Connor received in an uncontested election for her seat on the Malverne Board of Education, she will have served the board for near 30 years at the end of her upcoming four-year term.
Comments about this story? Ksalute@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205./
